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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

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BV  4520  .B2  1862 

Bacon,  Leonard,  1802-1881. 

Christian  self-culture 

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CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE ; 


COUNSELS  FOR    THE  BEGINNING  AND 
PROGRESS  OF  A  CHRISTIAN  LIFE. 


/ 
By  LEONARD  "^BACON, 

Pastor  of  the  First  Church  in  New  Haven, 


Published  by  the 
AMERICAN   TRACT   SOCIETY, 
*  28  Comhill,  Boston. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1862,  by 

The  American  Tract  Society, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


RIVERSIDE,    CAMBRIDGE: 
STEREOTTPED    AND   PRINTED  BY   H.   0.   HOUGHiON. 


I  INSCRIBE 

2rj)is   Volume 

TO  MY  BELOVED  PEOPLE  OF   THE  FIRST   CHURCH  AND 
ECCLESIASTICAL  SOCIETY  IN  NEW  HAVEN, 

GBATEFULLY   ACKNOWLEDGING   THEIR  UNWEARIED    KINDNESS   TO 

ME,   AND   IN   THE    HOPE   THAT    FROM   THESE   PAGES   I   MAY 

SPEAK    TO   THEM   AND    TO   THEIR    CHILDREN   AVHEN 

MY   VOICK    SHALL   BE    SILENT. 

LEONARD  BACON. 


PEEFACE. 


The  author  of  this  book  has  had  a  long  experience 
in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel.  As  he  looks  back  to 
the  time  when  he  entered  on  that  ministry,  and  in- 
quires of  himself  what  progress  he  has  made  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  gospel,  he  finds  that  in  nothing 
has  the  habit  of  his  mind  undergone  a  greater 
change  than  in  his  sense  of  the  freedom  with 
which  he  may  offes  salvation  to  men  in  the  name  of 
Christ.  Year  after  year,  without  becoming  conscious 
of  any  deviation  from  those  views  of  Christian  doc- 
trine which  are  commonly  recognized  as  "evangeli- 
cal," he  has  been  acquiring  a  more  enlarged  and  un- 
embarrassed conception  of  the  gospel  as  opening  a 
way  in  which  any  man  who  will  can  be  saved.  Sure- 
ly, if  there  is  any  first  principle  in  Christianity,  which 
is  to  be  held  at  all  hazards,  and  which  no  theological 
system  or  theory  may  be  permitted  to  darken,  it  is 
the  principle  that  salvation  from  sin,  and  from  the 
death  which  is  the  wages  of  sin,  is  offered,  frankly 
and  without  equivocation,  to  all  men. 


vi  PREFACE. 

This  book,  therefore,  regards  the  beginning  and 
progress  of  the  Christian  Hfe  from  that  point  of  view 
to  which  the  author  has  been  brought  by  his  experi- 
ence in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  as  well  as  by  his 
study  of  the  Scriptures.  It  assumes  that  in  the  case 
of  every  reader,  whoever  he  may  be,  the  beginning 
of  a  new  life  is  possible  by  the  grace  of  God  in 
Christ.  It  assumes  that  every  man  may  avail  him- 
self of  all  those  offers  and  promises  which  the  gospel 
sets  before  him,  —  may  accept  and  appropriate  the 
offered  forgiveness  of  sins,  —  may  act  on  the  assur- 
ance that  God  is  willing  to  give  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
answer  to  prayer,  —  may  confidently  trust  in  Christ's 
presence  and  friendship,  —  may  immediately  under- 
take to  follow  Christ,  striving  to  overcome  his  own 
selfish  and  unbelieving  habits,  and  hoping  to  get  the 
victory.  Therefore,  it  offers  to  the  reader,  not  a  psy- 
chological explanation  of  the  change  which  takes  place 
in  conversion,  nor  any  metaphysical  disquisition  about 
the  will,  but  only  some  practical  counsels  for  the  be- 
ginning and  progress  of  a  Christian  life.  If  it  is  to 
do  any  good,  it  must  be  read,  not  for  theological 
speculation  and  discussion,  nor  with  the  expectation 
tliat  it  will  produce  its  effect  by  some  impression  on 
the  feelings,  but  for  the  practical  purpose  of  Christian 
self-culture. 


PREFACE.  vii 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  in  this '  book  the 
Christian  life  is  considered  only  in  one  aspect.  The 
Christian  life  is  the  life  of  one  who,  at  the  call  of 
God,  under  the  mediation  and  leadership  of  Christ, 
and  in  reliance  on  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
has  undertaken  to  be  a  new  creature  in  Christ,  to 
be  progressively  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  his 
mind,  to  train  himself  in  and  for  the  service  of  God, 
and  so  to  make  the  most  of  himself  as  a  living  soul 
whose  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God  and  enjoy  him 
for  ever.  Considered  in  this  aspect,  it  is  Christian 
self-culture.  Considered  in  another  aspect,  it  is  Chris- 
tian experience ;  and  in  that  aspect  it  has  often  been 
described  and  analyzed  with  careful  discrimination 
between  the  genuine  and  the  false.  Let  not  this 
book,  because  it  treats  only  of  Christian  self-culture, 
be  considered  as  denying  or  doubting  the  reality  of 
Christian  experience.  Christian  self-culture,  ear- 
nestly undertaken  in  reliance  on  the  grace  of  God, 
and  diligently  pursued,  will  involve  in  its  progress 
all  that  is  essential  to  a  full  experience  of  the  gos- 
pel as  a  quickening  and  transforming  power. 

"With  these  explanations,  the  author  sends  forth 
his  work  upon  its  errand,  praying,  and  asking  the 
prayers  of  others,  that  God's  blessing  may  attend  the 
reading  of  it. 


CONTENTS. 


— ^— 

OHAP.  PAQB 

I.   The  Beginning 11 

II.  When  to  Begin 31 

III.  Integrity  and  Amiableness  as  related 

TO  A  Religious  Life       .        .        .        .47 

IV.  Faith  and  Manliness     .        .        .        .  67 
V.   Enlightened  Conscientiousness      .        .      89 

YI.  Freedom  Self-governed       .        .        .  Ill 

VII.   Steadfastness 133 

VIII.   Godliness 153 

IX.   Brotherly  Kindness  .        .        .        .175 

X.   Charity 195 

XI.   Christian  Growth 215 

Xn.  Fruitfulness 237 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE    BEGINNING 


"  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and 
I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of 
me  :  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart ;  and  ye  shall  find  rest 
unto  your  souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  burden  is 
light."     Matt.  xi.  28-30. 

"  Behold,  now  is  the  accepted  time ;  behold,  now  is  the  day 
of  salvation."     2  Cor.  vi.  2. 

"  It  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  this  the  judg- 
ment."   Heb.  ix.  27. 

"  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap.  For 
he  that  soweth  to  his  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption ; 
but  he  that  soweth  to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  hfe 
everlasting.     Gal.  vi.  7,  8. 

''  Know  ye  not  that  they  which  run  in  a  race,  run  all,  but 
one  receiveth  the  prize?  So  run  that  ye  may  obtain.  And 
every  man  that  striveth  for  the  mastery  is  temperate  in  all 
things.  Now  they  do  it  to  obtain  a  corruptible  crown ;  but 
we  an  incorruptible.  I  therefore  so  run,  not  as  uncertainly  ; 
so  fight  I,  not  as  one  that  beateth  the  air."    1  Cor.  ix.  24-26. 

"  Exercise  thyself  unto  godliness."     1  Tim.  iv.  7. 

"  I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which  strengthcneth 
me."    Philip,  iv.  13. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    BEGINNING. 

The  desigti  of  this  book.  What  are  you  in  your  own  con- 
sciousness ?  You  are  a  living  soul.  Your  destiny  can  not  be 
completed  in  this  life.  Your  faculties  are  proof  that  you 
were  made  for  a  free  and  intelligent  service  of  God.  You 
are  capable  of  unlimited  progress.  Connection  between  the  pres- 
ent and  the  future.  Now  or  never  you  must  be  trained  for 
your  hereafter.  Difficulties  and  disadvantages.  Power  of  sin. 
Encouragement.  Offers  and  hopes  presented  in  the  gospel. 
Nature  of  the  Christian  self  discipline.  It  is  a  discipline  in 
duty,  aided  by  the  means  of  grace. 

A  TRULY  religious  life  is  often  represented  in 
the  Scriptures  as  a  life  of  self-discipline  and  self- 
culture.  Viewed  in  this  aspect,  a  really  Chris- 
tian life  is  the  life  of  one  who,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Christian  views  and  motives,  and  in  the 
use  of  those  means  and  helps  which  God  has 
given  him  in  giving  him  the  gospel,  is  striving 
to  make  the  most  of  himself  for  the  ends  for 
which  he  w^as  created,  and  to  bring  himself  into 


14  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

the  highest  possible  conformity  to  the  will  and 
the  image  of  God.  Thus  the  Apostle  Paul  de- 
scribes the  Christian  life,  and  particularly  his 
own  life  as  a  Christian  man,  in  words  and  im- 
ages borrowed  from  the  discipline  by  which  the 
candidates  for  prizes  in  the  athletic  games  of 
Greece  were  exercised  and  trained  to  their  ut- 
most capability  of  bodily  activity  and  power. 
Thus,  too,  he  charges  his  friend  and  former  pu- 
pil, Timothy,  "Exercise  thyself  unto  godliness." 
In  other  words,  train  thyself,  by  a  religious  dis- 
cipline, to  the  knowledge  and  service  of  God. 
A  man  who  has  set  his  heart  upon  winning  the 
prize  in  the  Olympian  or  the  Isthmian  games 
trains  himself  to  that  end ;  he  goes  daily  into 
the  gymnasium,  to  leap,  to  run,  to  wrestle,  to 
develop  and  cultivate  the  power  of  his  muscles 
by  every  sort  of  practice  ;  so  "  exercise  thyself 
unto  godliness." 

Reader,  this  book  is  designed  to  help  you  in 
beginning  and  pursuing  a  Christian  life.  It  is 
designed  to  help  you  by  persuasion  and  by  friend- 
ly counsel.  The  religion  which  it  commends  to 
you  is  not  merely  the  intellectual  reception  of  a 


THE  BEGINNING.  15 

certain  doctrinal  scheme ;  nor  is  it  merely  an 
experience  of  excited  feeling ;  it  is  a  life,  a 
thoughtful  and  earnest  way  of  living,  a  life  of 
self-discipline.  A  religious  life  is  not  a  life  of 
forms,  or  of  outward  proprieties  and  moralities; 
it  is  the  interior  life  of  a  soul  training  itself  and 
developing  its  own  nature  aright,  —  a  soul  hum- 
bly, yet  with  resolute  diligence,  educating  its 
own  moral  and  spiritual  faculties  into  conform- 
ity with  truth  and  with  God.  Think,  as  you 
read,  that  a  friend  is  speaking  to  you.  I  wish 
to  bring  home  to  your  thoughts  the  reasonable- 
ness, the  duty,  the  necessity  of  such  a  life.  I 
am  to  make  you  understand,  if  I  can,  what  is  a 
truly  religious  life,  and  what  it  is  to  be  a  relig- 
ious man,  religion  being  viewed  under  the  form 
of  Christian  self-culture.  Allow  me  thus  to  help 
you,  if  I  can,  in  beginning  such  a  life.  And 
may  God  help  me  while  I  write,  and  help  you 
when  you  read. 

We  begin,  then,  with  this  question  :  Have  you 
ever  considered  what  you  aref  In  order  to  any 
right  understanding  of  the  subject,  or  any  con- 
scious interest  in  it,  you  must  be  willing  to  think 


16  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

and  to  turn  your  thought  upon  youself.  You 
must  reflect ;  for  serious  thought  turned  inward 
is  reflection.  You  must  reflect  on  the  nature, 
the  capabilities,  and  the  future  of  your  own 
existence ;  on  your  faculties  of  thought  and  will, 
and  your  capacity  of  progress ;  on  the  career  for 
which  you  were  created,  and  to  which  your  pow- 
ers and  capabilities,  as  a  living  soul,  are  adapted. 
What  are  you?  Are  you  an  animal,  merely, 
with  some  few  faculties  that  give  you  the  advan- 
tage over  other  animals ;  while  they,  in  their 
turn,  have  in  some  other  respects  the  advantage 
over  you  ?  If  so,  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow 
you  die.  But  you  start  back  from  such  a  con- 
clusion ;  you  know  that  you  differ  from  the  no- 
blest of  brutes,  not  in  degree,  not  by  those  in- 
cidents and  circumstances  merely  that  constitute 
variety,  but  In  kind.  These  limbs  and  organs 
of  yours,  this  material  body  and  its  parts  and 
members,  are  yours,  indeed ;  but  they  are  not 
yourself  You  are,  in  your  own  consciousness, 
a  living  spirit,  reasonable,  voluntary,  determining 
your  own  course  and  character.  Inferior  crea- 
tures are  bound  by  laws  which  they  know   not, 


THE  BEGINNING.  17 

and  can  not  resist ;  but  you  are  bound  by  laws 
which  speak  through  your  reason  to  your  vol- 
untary nature,  and  which  you  resist  or  obey  at 
your  option.  You  can  perceive  and  grasp  truth, 
—  not  merely  the  phenomena  that  strike  your 
senses  as  they  strike  the  senses  of  inferior  crea- 
tures,—  but  truth.  You  can  perceive  truths  in- 
visible, truths  infinite,  truths  necessary  and  eter- 
nal. You  can  perceive  not  merely  colors,  forms, 
and  distances,  as  inferior  creatures  see  them,  but 
beauty  and  grandeur  spread  like  a  vail  of  light 
over  all  the  creation  of  God.  You  can  perceive 
not  merely  pleasure  and  pain,  consequent  in  vari- 
ous degrees  on  various  acts  ;  but  obligation,  duty, 
the  right  and  the  wrong,  with  the  beauty  of  the 
one  and  the  hatefulness  of  the  other.  Your  hu- 
man body  —  the  frail  thing  that  eats,  drinks, 
sleeps,  is  weary  and  sick,  decays  and  is  resolved 
into  dust  —  how  small  a  part  is  it  of  yourself ! 
You.,  in  your  consciousness  and  personality,  are 
something  else  than  the  organization  through 
which  you  are  in  communication  with  material 
nature.  Your  heing  is  that  which  thinks,  rea- 
sons, knows,  inquires,  believes,  remembers,  im- 
2 


\S  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

agines,  loves,  hates,  hopes,  fears,  determines,  re- 
flects, approves,  condemns,  rejoices,  repents.  You 
are  a  living  spirit,  created  in  the  likeness  of  God, 
created  for  freedom  and  responsibility.  Have  you 
ever  considered,  thoughtfully,  what  you  are  ? 

Think  again.  Can  such  an  existence  as  yours 
accomplish  all  its  destiny  in  this  short  course  of 
mortal  life?  You  were  created  for  more  than 
this.  There  was  an  hour  when  you  began  to 
be ;  but  when  will  you  cease  to  be  ?  Death, 
indeed,  is  at  hand  ;  there  will  soon  be  a  great 
change  in  your  condition,  and  none  can  ade- 
quately tell  you  what  that  change  will  be  ;  but 
the  instinct  of  immortality  witliin  you  constrains 
you  to  look  forth  into  the  infinite  future  with 
expectation  that  will  not  be  suppressed.  This 
mortal  life,  under  this  material  organization,  is 
Qn]y  the  beginning  of  your  history,  —  a  history  that 
will  have  no  end.  Have  you  ever  thought  of 
this  ?  Think  of  it  now.  Think  what  it  is  to 
be  a  living  soul,  rational,  responsible,   immortal. 

Let  your  soul  thus  rouse  itself  from  its  unre- 
flective  habit  to  the  consciousness  of  what  you 
are,  and  another  view  will  open  to  your  thoughts. 


THE  BEGINNING.  19 

For  what  were  you  made  with  these  capabilities 
and  facuhies  ?  The  world  is  full  of  life,  and  full 
of  the  manifested  power  and  skill  and  love  of 
its  Creator ;  but,  of  all  the  living  creatures  that 
you  see,  you  only,  and  your  fellow-men,  are  ca- 
pable of  knowing  God.  Other  creatures  do  his 
will  ignorantly  and  involuntarily ;  you  are  capa- 
ble of  rendering  to  him — or  of  withholding  from 
him  —  an  intelligent  and  willing  service.  This, 
then,  is  what  you  were  made  for,  —  to  know 
God,  to  behold  with  adoring  acknowledgment 
his  manifestations  of  himself,  to  commune  with 
him  in  thought  and  action,  to  be  his  willing  ser- 
vant and  his  loving  child,  and  to  be  blessed  in 
his  service  and  his  love.  If  you  were  made  for 
this,  as  your  consciousness  assures  you  that  you 
were,  then  to  this  you  must  be  trained,  —  to  this 
your  character  must  be  formed,  —  or  you  miss 
the  "  end  and  aim "  for  which  you  came  into 
existence. 

Think  also  (for  just  here  it  is  natural  for  you 
to  think  of  it)  what  your  progress  may  be  in 
the  future.  Take  away  the  limits  which  are  in- 
separable from  the  present  condition  of  the  soul, 


20  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

bounded  on  every  side  by  the  grossness  and  the 
frailty  of  this  material  organization,  and  what 
limit  can  be  set  to  the  progress  which  you  shall 
hereafter  make  in  knowledge,  in  the  intensity 
of  love  or  hate,  and  in  the  capacity  of  blessed- 
ness or  wretchedness  ?  With  what  a  treasm-e, 
then,  are  you  embarked  upon  the  sea  of  exist- 
ence ;  and  how  important  is  it  that  your  soul 
be  so  trained  and  disciplined  as  to  secure  this 
infinite  treasure ! 

Having  led  you  to  these  reflections  on  your 
own  nature,  with  its  marvelous  powers  and  ca- 
pabilities, I  now  propose  another  question  :  Have 
you  ever  considered^  with  due  ihoughtfulness^  ivhat 
connection  tliere  may  he  between  your  ^:??'esen^  life 
and  your  life  hereafter  ?  Think  how  far  your 
soul's  well-being  after  death  may  be  dependent 
on  what  your  soul  shall  have  become  before 
death. 

I  am  not  asking  you  to  occupy  your  mind 
with  useless  conjectures,  or  with  inferences  from 
doubtful  speculations.  We  have  a  sure  word  of 
prophecy.  God  has  given  us  intelligible  certain- 
ties.    Now  is  the  accepted  time.     After  death  is 


THE  BEGINNING.  21 

the  judgment.  Every  one  shall  receive  accord- 
ing to  that  he  hath  done  in  the  body.  You  are 
now  sowing  that  of  which  you  will  reap  the  in- 
finite harvest  hereafter ;  and  what  a  man  soweth 
that  shall  he  also  reap ;  he  that  soweth  to  the 
flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption,  and  he 
that  soweth  to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap 
life  everlasting.  This  life  is  your  probation.  All 
is  involved  in  the  result  of  it.  The  character 
which  your  soul  shall  bear  in  the  sight  of  God, 
at  your  departure  from  this  mortal  life,  will  deter- 
mine your  course^  and  destiny  in  the  immortal 
life  to  come.  Now  or  never  your  soul  must  be 
formed,  by  fit  culture,  for  the  love  and  service 
of  God,  as  its  chief  end  and  its  immortal  blessed- 
ness. Let  this  opportunity  be  wasted,  —  let  your 
soul  pass  through  this  period  of  probation  unedu- 
cated, undisciplined  in  God's  service,  unfitted  for 
that  high  career  to  which  its  faculties  and  its 
capacities  were  destined,  —  and  when,  in  all 
the  cycles  of  eternity,  will  you  find  one  oppor- 
tunity to  repair  the  infinite  waste  ? 

And    here    another    question    presents    itself: 
Have  you  ever  considered  how  much  has  been  aU 


22  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

ready  lost,  and  under  what  difficulties  and  disad- 
vantages the  training  of  your  soul,  for  its  immor- 
tal life  of  duty  and  of  blessedness,  must  he  begun  f 
The  fact  of  your  apostasy  from  God,  and  of  the 
effects  which  sin  has  ah'eady  produced  upon  your 
spiritual  nature,  is  a  most  material  fact  in  the 
problem  of  that  moral  and  spiritual  self-culture 
to  which  you  are  invited. 

In  the  education  of  your  soul  for  the  immor- 
tal love  and  service  of  God,  you  have  not  only 
every  thing  to  learn,  but  every  thing  to  unlearn. 
You  must  cease  to  do  evil,  or  you  can  not  learn 
to  do  well ;  and  this  necessity  of  ceasing  to  do 
evil  is  what  makes  the  task  of  learning  to  do 
well  so  difficult.  You  are  under  the  power  of 
habits,  long-established  and  confirmed,  which  it 
must  be  the  first  effort  of  a  rehgious  self-disci- 
pline to  break  up  and  dislodge.  From  your  ear- 
liest remembrance  of  yourself,  you  have  been 
governed,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  by  pro- 
pensities which  must  be  resisted  and  subdued. 
This  is  not  a  trivial  accident  which  has  befallen 
you,  and  which  the  better  forces  of  your  nature 
may   be   expected   to   throw   off  by   their   spon- 


THE  BEGINNING.  2^ 

taneous  workino;.  You  know  there  is  nothing; 
trivial  or  transient  in  the  corruption  which  has 
taken  hold  of  your  spiritual  nature,  and  has  de- 
graded you  so  far  below  what  you  ought  to  be^ 
and  so  far  below  what  you  must  yet  become, 
unless  your  soul  is  wrecked  for  ever.  Our  pres- 
ent purpose  does  not  require  us  to  enter  into 
any  speculative  explanations  of  the  fact ;  —  the 
fact  itself  is  what  concerns  us  now.  The  self- 
discipline  to  which  you  are  invited  is  not  mere- 
ly to  train  the  powers,  and  to  unfold  and  direct 
the  pure  susceptibilities  of  an  unfallen  spirit. 
It  is  a  remedial  discipline,  dealing  with  an  apos- 
tate soul.  It  is  a  discipline  designed  and  con- 
ducted for  the  recovery  of  a  sinful  soul ;  aiming 
to  humble  it,  to  renew  it,  to  purify  it,  to  set  it 
free  from  its  bondage,  to  transform  it  into  the 
resemblance  of  God's  holiness,  and  thus  to  make 
it  fit  for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light. 
Or,  rather,  it  is  the  life-long  labor  of  such  a  soul, 
led  by  the  grace  of  God  to  struggle  for  its  own 
deliverance,  to  work  out  its  own  salvation  with 
fear  and  trembling,  to  purify  itself  by  obeying 
the   truth   through  the  Spirit,  to    exercise  itself 


24  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

unto  godliness.  How  important  is  it,  then,  to 
you  that  this  remedial  discipline  be  undertaken 
without  delay,  and  be  maintained  with  ceaseless 
diligence  to  the  end. 

Here  the  question  comes  :  Is  there  any  possi- 
hility,  any  reasonable  Tiope^  of  success  in  such  an 
attempt?  In  answer  to  this  question,  I  com- 
mend to  your  attention  and  yout  confidence  the 
grace  of  God  that  is  offered  in  the  gospel. 

The  gospel  of  Christ  does  not  merely  propose 
the  reward  of  eternal  blessedness  to  those  who 
are  worthy  of  such  an  inheritance  ;  its  grace  is 
far  ampler  and  richer  than  that.  Read  what 
the  Saviour  says  :  "  If  ye  continue  in  my  words, 
then  are  ye  my  disciples  indeed,  and  ye  shall 
know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free."  Hear  him  inviting  you :  "  Come  to  me 
all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden  —  take  my 
yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  me."  The  gospel 
is  rich  with  promises  like  these,  by  which  we 
may  escape  the  corruption  that  is  in  the  world, 
and  may  be  made  partakers  of  the  Divine  na- 
ture. (2  Pet.  i.  4.)  It  reveals  not  only  heaven 
for  the  holy,  but  also  (what  is  much  more  per- 


THE  BEGINNING.  25 

tinent  to  our  case)  pardon  for  the  guilty.  It 
reveals  not  only  God  the  Judge  of  all,  but  also 
Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the  new  covenant.  Nor 
is  this  all ;  for,  with  the  atoning  Saviour,  it  also 
reveals  and  offers  a  renewing  Spirit.  To  the 
believer  in  Christ,  not  only  is  there  no  more 
condemnation  (Rom.  viii.  1),  but  old  things  are 
passed  away  and  all  things  are  become  new 
(2  Cor.  vi.  IT)  ;  and,  notwithstanding  that  cor- 
ruption of  his  nature  which  sin  has  caused,  he 
may  learn  to  say,  with  humble  assurance,  "  I 
can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which  strength- 
eneth  me." 

To  you,  then,  the  assurance  is  offered,  that 
if  you  will  come  to  God  in  Christ  for  pardon 
and  grace,  —  if  you  will  come,  humbling  your- 
self and  repenting  and  asking  for  the  Holy 
Spirit,  —  you  may  undertake  this  course  of  self- 
discipline  for  immortal  holiness  with  a  confident 
hope  of  success.  The  gospel,  with  all  its  grace, 
is  set  before  you  expressly  for  this  end,  that 
you  may  be  persuaded  and  enabled  and  en- 
couraged to  exercise  yourself  now  in  the  ser- 
vice  of  God,  and  so  to  train  yourself  for  that 


26  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

higher  and  perfect  service  of  God,  which  will 
employ  for  ever  the  perfected  spirits  of  the  just. 

I  will  now  presume  that  you  are  ready  to  ask 
for  yourself,  Wliat  is  the  self-discipline  to  which 
I  am  invited?  What  are  the  processes  and 
methods,  what  the  means  and  helps,  of  this  spir- 
itual self-training  ? 

Understand,  then,  that  the  discipline  to  which 
you  are  summoned  is  the  discipline  of  duty,  of 
voluntary  subjection  to  truth,  of  holiness,  of 
the  service  of  God.  Just  that  service  of  God 
to  which  you  are  called  in  this  world,  what- 
ever your  particular  field  of  service  may  he,  as 
determined  by  your  place  and  your  relations  in 
society  —  that  service,  whatever  it  may  be,  which 
the  providence  of  God  allots  to  you  —  a  service 
which  you  are  to  perform  in  the  face  of  innu- 
merable temptations,  and  which  involves  a  per- 
petual conflict  with  whatever  is  perverse  in  your 
own  habits  and  inclinations  —  that  service  of  God, 
in  your  place  and  calling,  is  itself  the  most  ma- 
terial part  of  the  discipline  by  which  you  are  to 
be  trained  for  a  higher  ministry  hereafter.  By 
all  those  daily  duties,  then,  and  all  those  daily 


THE  BEGINNING.  27 

cares,  in  which  God  would  have  you  serve  him. 
and  your  fellow-men,  you  are  to  be  trained  and 
exercised  unto  godliness.  He  who,  whether  he  eats 
or  drinks,  or  whatever  he  does,  strives  to  do  all  to 
the  glory  of  God  —  he  who,  in  any  sphere  of  toil, 
from  the  loftiest  to  the  lowliest,  learns  to  do  all 
things  heartily  to  the  Lord  and  not  to  men  —  is 
training  himself  effectually  for  immortal  virtue. 

Subsidiary  to  this  discipline  of  daily  duty, 
there  are  the  various  means  of  grace^  —  the  means 
by  which  the  soul  is  led  and  assisted  in  the  per- 
formance of  duty  and  in  the  culture  of  holy  af- 
fections and  habits.  You  know  what  these  means 
of  grace  are.  There  is  prayer,  —  by  which  the 
soul  comes  into  immediate  communion  with  God, 
and  receives  immediately  from  him  a  quickening 
influence.  By  prayer  you  can  exercise  yourself 
to  godliness.  There  is  the  religious  duty  of  re- 
flection in  order  to  self-knowledge ;  the  devo- 
tional exercise  of  communing  with  your  own 
heart,  and  inquiring  into  your  own  habits  and 
condition  before  God,  so  that  by  growing  more 
and  more  acquainted  with  yourself,  you  may 
grow  in  humility  and   penitence.     In   this  way, 


28  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

you  are  to  exercise  yourself  to  godliness.  Tliere 
is  also  the  exercise  of  an  habitual  watchfulness 
against  temptation,  —  the  habit  of  observing  one's 
own  weaknesses  and  spiritual  dangers,  and  of 
keeping  guard  against  them.  By  this  you  are 
to  discipline  and  train  your  soul  till  you  are  al- 
ways on  your  guard,  incapable  of  a  surprise. 
Need  I  insist  on  the  right  use  of  times  and  sea- 
sons, and  of  all  special  opportunities  for  cultivat- 
ing those  affections  in  which  the  soul  has  fellow- 
ship with  God  ?  Whenever  any  thing  occurs  that 
quickens  your  religious  sensibilities,  —  any  thing 
that  brings  God,  eternity,  heaven,  near  to  your 
thoughts  and  feelings,  —  then  is  a  time  in  which, 
if  you  will  use  the  opportunity  aright,  you  may 
effectually  discipline  your  soul  to  godliness.  And 
with  all  these,  yet  distinct  from  them  all,  there 
is  that  special  intercourse  with  God  which  you 
may  have  in  the  devout  and  teachable  study  of 
his  word ;  there  is  the  house  of  God ;  there  is 
the  fellowship  of  those  who  love  God,  and  who 
walk  by  faith.  In  the  use  of  all  these  means 
of  grace.,  you  are  to  train  yourself  to  the  bless- 
edness of  serving  God  in  love  for  ever. 


THE  BEGINNING.  29 

Such  is  the  discipline  of  jour  own  spiritual 
faculties  and  capabilities,  to  which  religion  calls 
you.  Such  are  the  modes  and  processes  by  which 
you  are  to  exercise  yourself  to  godliness.  Think, 
now,  what  sort  of  a  discipline  this  is.  Is  it  any 
thing  servile  ?  Is  there  any  degradation  in  being 
subject  to  it?  Is  there  any  thing  in  it  that  you 
need  be  afraid  of?  Is  it  any  thing  else  than  the 
highest  and  noblest  culture  of  your  spiritual  and 
immortal  nature  ?  To  be  without  such  disci- 
pline —  to  be  left  under  the  power  of  the 
habits  and  tendencies  which  this  discipline  pro- 
poses to  resist  and  overcome  —  that  is  bondage ; 
that  is  degradation  ;  that  is  the  soul's  wretched- 
ness and  ruin.  The  great  author  and  finisher  of 
this  discipline,  the  Divine  Revealer  of  its  prom- 
ises and  hopes,  will  make  you  free.  "  Come  un- 
to me,"  he  says,  "  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke 
upon  you,  and  learn  of  me :  for  I  am  meek  and 
lowly  in  heart;  and  ye  shall  find  rest  to  your 
souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  burden  is 
light." 

Reader!    have   you   entered   upon   this  course 


30  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

of  self-discipline,  under  the  guidance  of  Christ  ? 
Have  you  —  reflecting  on  the  nature,  the  capaci- 
ties and  the  destiny  of  your  own  soul,  realizing 
the  relations  which  connect  this  ti'ansient  life 
with  the  infinite  hereafter,  remembering  the  fact 
of  your  apostasy  and  alienation  from  God,  and 
trusting  in  the  offered  grace  of  the  gospel — be-, 
gun  with  earnest  and  resolute  purpose  to  exer- 
cise yourself  to  godliness?  Are  you  daily  prac- 
ticing this  self-discipline,  watchfully,  diligently, 
and  in  the  believing  spirit  of  dependence  on 
Christ  ? 

If  you  have  not  yet  begun,  why  should   you 
not  begin  to-day? 


CHAPTER  II. 


WHEN   TO   BEGIN. 


"  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  can  not  see  the  kingdom 
of  God."     John  iii.  3. 

"  Murmur  not  among  yourselves.  No  man  can  come  to 
me,  except  the  Father  who  hath  sent  me  draw  him.  .  .  . 
Every  man  therefore  that  hath  heard  and  hath  learned  of  the 
Father,  cometh  to  me."    John  vi.  43,  45. 

"  If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature."  2  Cor. 
v.  17. 

"  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation, 
that  Clirist  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  1 
Tim.  i.  3. 

"  The  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  hath  appeared 
to  all  men,  teaching  us  that,  denying  ungodliness  and  worldly 
lusts,  we  should  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this 
present  world,  looking  for  that  blessed  hope  and  the  glorious 
appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who 
gave  himself  for  us  that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity, 
and  purify  to  himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  works." 
Tit.  ii.  11-14. 

"  Having  therefore  these  promises,  let  us  cleanse  ourselves 
from  all  filthiness  of  the  flesh  and  spirit,  perfecting  holiness  in 
the  fear  of  God."    2  Cor.  vii.  1. 


CHAPTER  II. 


WHEN    TO    BEGIN. 


A  common  excuse.  Mistakes  about  conversion.  The  mis- 
take of  thinking  that  you  must  make  some  preparation.  The 
mistake  of  thinking  that  you  must  not  trust  in  Christ  till  you 
feel  that  you  have  been  converted.  The  mistake  of  thinking 
that  after  conversion  every  thing  will  be  easy.  How  the  Chris- 
tian life  really  begins.     Will  you  make  this  beginning  now  1 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  gospel  invites  you 
to  a  life  of  moral  and  spiritual  self-discipline  in 
preparation  for  the  life  to  come.  But  you,  per- 
haps, excuse  yourself  by  saying  that  a  Christian 
life  must  begin  with  being  born  again.  You  tell 
me,  perhaps,  that  all  counsels  and  persuasions  in 
reference  to  a  Christian  life  are  properly  addressed 
to  the  converted ;  and  that  you,  inasmuch  as  you 
have  had  no  experience  of  the  great  change  in 
wdiich  a  Christian  life  begins,  have  no  present 
concern  in  the  subject  which  I  am  commending 
to  your  attention. 


34  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

Let  us,  then,  look  this  difficulty  fairly  in  the 
face,  and  see  what  becomes  of  your  excuse.  I 
would  by  no  means  intimate  that  there  is  no  dif- 
ficulty in  your  way,  nor  that  your  conversion 
from  a  thoughtless  and  selfish  life  to  a  life  of 
humble  and  earnest  preparation  for  eternity  is 
dependent  simply  on  your  sovereign  volition.  I 
would  by  no  means  lessen  your  sense  of  your  de- 
pendence on  God  for  those  merciful  influences  of 
his,  under  which  so  great  a  change  in  you  must 
be  effected.  But  may  it  not  be  that  you  have 
taken  up  some  erroneous  conception  of  what  that 
change  is  which  the  Scriptures  call  a  being  born 
again  ?  May  it  not  be,  that  if  you  will  deliber- 
ately and  fairly  reconsider  what  the  gospel  re- 
quires of  you,  and  what  it  offers  you,  and  will 
cease  to  resist  the  influences  w^hich  at  this  mo- 
ment are  working  within  you  and  moving  you  to 
a  decision,  you  will  see  and  feel  the  fallacy  of 
your  excuse  ?  It  may  help  you  to  understand 
yourself,  and  the  nature  and  extent  of  your  re- 
sponsibility for  your  own  well-being,  if  I  succeed 
in  explaining  to  you  some  of  the  common  mis- 
takes about  conversion.     Let   us  inquire  a  little 


WHEN  TO  BEGIN.  35 

into  your  theory  about  the  beginning  of  a  Chris- 
tian life. 

Perhaps  you  have  fallen  into  the  habit  of  sup- 
posing that  your  conversion  to  Christ,  and  your 
privilege  of  appropriating  as  your  own  the  offers 
and  promises  which  are  set  before  you  in  his 
name,  must  be  the  result  of  some  preparatory 
work  on  your  part.  I  shall  not  argue  with  you 
on  this  point.  What  more  need  I  say  than  that 
such  a  habit  of  mind  contradicts  and  excludes  the 
first  right  conception  of  the  gospel  ?  Why  do 
you  need  Christ  ?  Your  need  is  that  without 
him  you  are  helpless.  The  simplest  and  most 
comprehensive  statement  of  the  gospel  is  that 
"  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  w^orld  to  save  sin- 
ners." If  you  were  now  just  what  Saul  of  Tar- 
sus was  when  he  was  on  his  way  from  Jerusalem 
to  Damascus,  the  first  thing  for  you  to  do,  at  the 
moment  of  coming  to  yourself,  would  be  —  not 
a  preparation  for  conversion,  but  conversion  it- 
self—  not  a  getting  yourself  ready  for  coming  to 
Christ,  but  an  actual  turning  to  Christ,  with  that 
question  of  a  submissive  and  confiding  soul, 
"  Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have   me   to  do  ?  "     If 


36  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

yon  were  at  tills  hour  tlie  guiltiest  of  men  in  the 
sight  of  God,  the  first  thing  for  you  to  do  would 
be  not  to  establish  a  new  character  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  trusting  in  Christ,  but  to  trust  in  Christ 
in  order  to  your  becoming  a  new  creature.  Re- 
member what  the  true  idea  of  the  gospel  is.  It 
is  God's  way  of  saving  men  from  their  sins.  It 
is  God's  revealed  method  of  turning  men  to  him- 
self, and  of  training  them  in  this  world  for  im- 
mortal activity  and  blessedness  in  the  world  to 
come. 

Just  here  another  mistake  sometimes  occurs  to 
hinder  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  life.  Per- 
haps you  are  in  the  habit  of  thinking  that  the 
consciousness  of  a  great  change  wrought  within 
you  by  the  power  of  God  must  precede  your  act 
of  trusting  in  Christ.  Some  such  theory  of  con- 
version is  sometimes  deduced,  indistinctly,  or 
even  unconsciously,  from  the  necessity  of  being 
born  again.  The  promises  and  hopes  of  the 
gospel,  it  is  said,  are  only  for  those  who  have 
been  born  again,  and  not  for  the  unregenerate 
or  unconverted.  "  The  work  of  saving  me  from 
my   sins,"    it   is   said,    "is    God's  work  and   not 


WHEN  TO  BEGIN.  37 

mine  ;  how,  then,  am  I  to  begin  unless  I  am  first 
assured  that  God  has  begun  his  savino;  work  with- 
in  me,  —  how  can  I  claim  and  appropriate  the 
Christian  hope  of  emancipation  from  sin,  and  of 
victory  over  it,  —  how  can  I  enter  upon  the  Chris- 
tian life  of  self-discipline  for  immortal  holiness,  — 
unless  I  am  conscious  in  some  way  that  God  has 
called  me,  and  that  I  am  born  ao-ain  ?  "  * 

The  answer  to  all  this  is  that  you  are  mistaken 
in  your  theory  of  how  God  works  in  renewing 
and  saving  men.  If  you  will  suffer  yourself  to 
be  taught  by  the  Holy  Scriptures,  you  will  find 
that  they  give  no  support  to  such  a  theory. 
Where  or  how  do  the  Scriptures  teach  that  you 
must  be  born  again  before  you  accept  the  par- 
don and  the  grace  which  God  is  offering  you  ? 
They  teach  you,  indeed,  that  "  if  any  man  be 
in  Christ  he  is  a  new  creature ; "  but  they  do 
not  teach  that  any  man  becomes  a  new  creature 
while  he  is  out  of  Christ, — still  less,  that  his 
being  in  Christ  is  because  he  became  a  new 
creature  while  he  was  yet  out  of  Christ.  They 
teach,  indeed,  that  "  except  a  man  be  born  again, 
he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God;"  but  they 


38  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

do  not  teach  that  any  man  is  born  again,  or  can 
be,  before  he  accepts  the  gospel  as  his  hope,  and 
trusts  in  Christ  as  the  power  that  is  to  save  him, 
■ — still  less  that  he  must  have  the  consciousness 
that  he  is  born  again  before  he  can  believe  in 
the  Saviour  of  sinners.  Christ,  indeed,  teaches 
you,  "No  man  can  come  to  me,  except  the  Fa- 
ther whidi  hath  sent  me  draw  him ; "  but  he 
does  not  teach  you  that  the  Father  is  not  at 
this  moment  drawing  you,  nor  that  you  must 
wait  for  any  new  consciousness  before  you  ac- 
cept the  hopes  and  promises  which  the  gospel 
offers.  On  the  contrary,  the  Scriptures  are  full 
of  a  very  opposite  sort  of  doctrine,  inviting  you 
and  all  men  to  be  saved  ;  warning  you  against 
the  peril  of  neglecting  so  great  salvation  ;  and 
urging  you  to  work  out  your  salvation,  for  the 
reason  that  it  is  God  who  is  working  in  you  to 
will  to  do. 

This  error,  in  regard  to  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  life,  is  closely  related  to  another.  Per- 
haps your  theory  supposes  not  only  that  tlie 
consciousness  of  a  great  change  wrought  witliin 
you  by  the  power  of   God   must   go  before,   in- 


WHEN  TO  BEGIN.  89 

stead  of  following,  your  personal  confidence  in 
Christ  as  a  Saviour  for  you,  but  also  that  the 
change  which  you  are  waiting  for  will  take  away 
the  necessity  of  further  effort  and  conflict  in  the 
Christian  life.  Perhaps  the  theory  which  you 
have  indistinctly  and  unthinkingly  adopted,  con- 
cerning the  work  of  God  in  drawing  you  to 
Christ  and  making  you  a  new  creature,  implies 
that,  after  you  have  once  passed  through  that 
change,  your  progress  in  the  new  life  will  be, 
not  by  thoughtful  and  resolute  diligence,  — 
not  by  struggles  against  temptation  and  the  force 
of  old  habits,  —  not  by  intelligent  aspiration  and 
strenuous  endeavor,  —  but  by  mere  propensity, 
like  the  propensity  to  selfishness  and  unbelief 
to  which  you  have  heretofore  yielded  the  domin- 
ion over  your  soul.  I  apprehend  that  few  mis- 
takes in  regard  to  the  change  at  the  beginning 
of  a  Christian  life  are  more  common  than  this 
among  those  who,  having  been  taught  in  some 
form  of  sound  words  the  great  and  true  doctrine 
of  regeneration  and  sanctification  by  the  grace 
of  God,  have  accepted  that  doctrine  in  a  mere- 
ly  traditionary   way,    instead   of  deriving   it   di- 


40  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

rectly  from  the  Scriptures.  They  find  that  now 
they  are  worldly,  selfish,  and  thoughtless,  with- 
out effort,  —  that  they  are  carried  along  by  mere 
propensity,  —  that  they  are  borne  as  it  were 
•upon  a  mighty  current  ;  and  they  heedlessly 
presume  that,  if  ever  they  are  born  again,  the 
current  will  be  reversed,  as  in  a  change  of  tide, 
—  the  propensity  will  incline  the  other  way,  as 
the  inclination  of  the  scale-beam  changes  with 
the  shifting  of  the  weights,  —  and  that  a  life  of 
faith  and  prayer  and  holy  love  will  be  as  easy 
as  a  worldly  life  now  is.  Surely  I  need  not 
remind  any  thoughtful  soul  how  contrary  all  this 
is  to  the  whole  course  of  God's  teaching  in  his 
recorded  word.  You  know  well  enough,  if  yoii 
will  remember  what  you  know,  that  the  begin- 
ning of  a  Christian  life,  —  the  change  which 
takes  place  in  conversion  when  God  draws  the 
soul  to  Christ, — the  change  which  takes  place 
when  the  man  is  born  again  and  becomes  a 
citizen  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  —  is  not  after 
such  a  fashion.  The  being  born  again,  —  the 
coming  to  Christ,  —  the  conversion  of  the  soul 
to    God,  —  the   becoming  a  new  creature,  —  the 


WHEN  TO  BEGIN,  41 

great  transition  from  death  in  trespasses  and  sins 
to  a  new  and  spiritual  life,  —  is  the  beginning 
of  a  life-long  conflict  with  inward  propensities, 
as  well  as  with  outward  temptations. 

Think,  then,  what  that  life  is  to  which  the 
gospel  invites  you,  and  you  will  have  a  clearer 
knowledge  of  what  the  beginning  of  that  life 
must  be.  All  the  words  and  images  by  which 
the  greatness  of  that  change  is  represented  to 
you,  or  by  which  God's  mercy  in  bringing  that 
change  to  pass  is  commended  to  your  humble 
and  grateful  adoration,  will  become  alike  intel- 
ligible and  impressive,  when  you  remember  dis- 
tinctly what  sort  of  a  life  it  is  to  which  the 
gospel  calls  you.  Just  remember  that  the  gos- 
pel calls  you  to  a  life  of  humble,  praying,  and 
constant  self-discipline,  under  the  guidance  of 
God's  word  and  with  his  promised  help,  pre- 
paring you  for  immortal  well-doing  and  well- 
being  in  the  life  to  come ;  and  you  will  liardly 
fail  to  see  what  ^  the  beginning  of  such  a  life 
must  be.  Remember  that  such  a  life  must 
needs  be  a  life  of  free  obedience  to  the  will  of 
God,  and   of  earnest  self-denial  for  tlie  sake  of 


42  CHEISTIAK  SELF-CULTURE. 

pleasing  him,  —  a  life  of  conflict  with  temptation 
and  of  resolute  watchfulness,  —  a  life  of  trusting 
dependence  on  Christ  and  of  habitual  looking 
for  help  in  time  of  need,  —  a  life  of  practical 
love  to  God  testified  by  the  doing  of  his  will, 
and  of  practical  love  to  men  testified  by  doing 
good,  —  a  life,  therefore,  of  progress  by  God's 
blessing  on  your  diligence  in  the  face  of  obsta- 
cles and  under  the  consciousness  of  infirmity. 
Can  you  not  see,  with  the  offers  and  promises 
of  the  gospel  before  you,  what  you  are  to  do, 
and  what  is  wanting  in  your  case  to  the  com- 
mencement of  such  a  life  ? 

Just  this  is  wanting  in  your  case,  —  not  some 
preparation  for  beginning  such  a  life,  but  sim- 
ply a  beginning,  —  not  some  preparation  that 
shall  make  it  possible  for  you  to  lay  hold  on 
the  hope  set  before  you,  or  that  shall  make  it 
right  for  you  to  do  so,  but  simply  that  you  ac- 
cept the  mercy  and  help  which  God  offers  you. 
That  new  life  to  which  Christ  calls  you  begins 
with  believing  that  he  calls  you.  It  begins 
with  a  practical  confidence  in  that  way  of  be- 
ing  saved  which   the   gospel   opens   before   you. 


WHEN  TO  BEGIN.  43 

It  begins  with  simply  trusting  in  that  "  faith- 
ful saying  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation^  that 
Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sin- 
ners,"—  just  such  sinners  as  you  are.  It  be- 
gins, therefore,  with  what  we  call  coming  to 
Christ,  —  that  is,  with  the  act  of  accepting  him, 
leaning  upon  him,  trusting  in  him  that  he  is 
and  will  be  all  that  the  gospel  testifies  concern- 
ing him.  Christ  has  come  to  you,  and  is  wait- 
ing before  you,  as  a  Saviour  from  sin  by  expi- 
ation and  free  forgiveness.  You  can  do  nothing 
for  yourself,  nor  can  he  do  any  thing  more  for 
you,  unless  you  trust  in  him.  He  has  come  to 
you,  and  is  waiting  before  you  as  a  teacher  and 
guide ;  and  his  promise  is  that  he  will  be  with 
you  always  in  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Do  you  not  see,  then,  what  it  is  to  begin  that 
life  to  which  the  gospel  is  inviting  you  ?  Do 
you  not  see  that,  while  you  wait  for  some  prep- 
aration, which  you  mistakenly  call  conversion,  — 
or  which  you  hope  to  achieve  by  your  own  en- 
deavors,—  while  you  hesitate  about  committing 
yourself,  just  as  you  are,  to  the  divine  offer  of 
salvation,  just  as  you  find  that  offer  in  the  gos- 
pel,—  you  are  really  "neglecting  the  great  sal- 


44  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

vation,"  and  are  resisting  the  Holy  Spirit?  Do 
you  not  see  that  there  is,  and  can  be,  no  other 
way  for  you  to  begin  than  by  trusting  God's 
"  exceeding  great  and  precious  promises  "  of  for- 
giveness, of  help  in  the  conflict  with  sin,  and 
of  final  victory  and  deliverance  ?  Such  a  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian  life  is  conversion.  This 
is  what  we  mean  when  we  talk  of  coming  to 
Christ,  and  this  is  what  Christ  himself  means 
when  he  bids  you  come  to  him.  He  who  thus 
comes  to  Christ  is  thenceforth  "  in  Christ,"  and 
is,  therefore,  "  a  new  creature."  The  question 
is  before  you,  whether  you  will  commit  j^our- 
self  frankly  to  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  and 
in  that  confidence  undertake,  with  full  purpose 
of  heart,  the  sublime  work  of  self-discipline  for 
an  immortal  life  of  blessedness  in  the  love  and 
service  of  God. 

You  begin  when  you  "flee  for  refuge  to  lay 
hold  upon  the  hope  set  before  you."  You  be- 
gin when  your  heart  yields  to  the  force  of  that 
argument :  "  Having  therefore  these  promises, 
let  us  cleanse  ourselves  from  all  filthiness  of  the 
flesh  and  spirit,  perfecting  holiness,  in  the  fear 
of  the  Lord." 


WHEN  TO  BEGIN.  45 

Have  you  made  that  beginning  ?  If  you  have 
not,  will  you  begin  to-day?  Come,  then,  for 
there  is  no  real  hinderance.  Come,  without  wait- 
ing. Now  let  the  blessed  covenant  which  God 
in  Christ  offers  to  make  with  you  be  established 
for  ever.  You  are  alone  with  God  ;  kneel  be- 
fore him,  and  say,  not  with  your  lips  only,  but 
with  all  your  heart, — 

"  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner !  O  God, 
most  holy,  thou  hast  been  merciful  to  me. 
Thou  hast  met  me  a  great  way  off,  and  hast 
called  me  to  return  and  be  at  peace  with  thee. 
Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath 
bestowed  on  me,  that  I  should  be  numbered 
with  the  sons  of  God !  Lord,  I  believe ;  help 
thou  mine  unbelief !  Needy  and  guilty  as  I 
am,  I  come  to  thy  mercy-seat,  that  I  may  take 
the  offered  mercy,  and  may  find  grace  to  help 
in  time  of  need.  I  come  to  lay  hold  on  the 
hope  set  before  me.  O  God,  who  art  in  Christ, 
reconciling  the  world  to  thyself,  I  come  to 
thee !  O  Lamb  of  God  that  takest  away  the 
sin    of  the   world,  be   thou   in    me  the  hope  of 


46  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

glory !  To  whom  can  I  go  but  to  thee,  for  thou 
only  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life.  Let  me  sit 
at  thy  feet,  henceforth,  receiving  and  obeying 
all  thy  words,  and  trusting  in  thy  power  to 
save.  Henceforth  be  my  life  a  continued  con- 
flict with  my  own  infirmities,  with  the  tempta- 
tions that  surround  me,  with  the  evil  that  dwells 
within  me.  O  God,  that  forgivest  my  sins, 
give  me  the  victory!  Let  it  be  my  experience, 
as  it  is  now  my  humble  confidence,  that  I  can 
do  all  things  through  Christ  who  strengtheneth 
me  !  Thou  who  art  not  willing  that  any  should 
perish,  and  who  givest  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them 
that  ask  thee,  here  am  I  in  my  unworthiness 
and  helplessness;  I  present  myself,  a  living 
sacrifice  to  thee.  Trusting  in  thy  offers  and 
promises,  I  covenant  with  thee  that  I  will  be 
no  more  conformed  to  this  world,  and  that  I 
will  give  all  diligence  to  be  transformed  by  the 
renewing  of  my  mind,  and  so  to  prove  in'my 
experience  what  is  thy  good  and  perfect  and 
acceptable  will  that  leads  me  to  repentance. 
Work  thou  in  me  of  thy  good  pleasure,  while 
I  work  out  my  salvation  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling ! " 


CHAPTER  m. 


INTEGRITY  AND  AMIABLENESS  AS    RELATED 
TO  A  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 


"Provide  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  all  men."  Eom. 
xii.  17. 

"Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are  hon- 
est, whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure, 
whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good 
report ;  if  there  be  any  virtue  and  if  there  be  any  praise,  tliink 
on  these  things."    Phil.  iv.  8. 


CHAPTER  III. 

INTEGRITY    AND    AMIABLENESS    AS    RELATED    TO   A 
RELIGIOUS    LIFE. 

Religion  without  goodness.  A  truly  Christian  man  is  the 
better  for  his  religion,  —  more  worthy  of  love  and  confidence  in 
all  the  relations  of  society.  The  culture  of  the  secular  virtues 
is  one  part  of  the  Christian  self-culture.  How  these  virtues  are 
to  he  cultivated.  Difference  in  this  respect  between  the  be- 
liever in  Christ  and  the  unbeliever. 

A  RELIGIOUS  life  is  sometimes  supposed, 
strangely  enough,  to  be  quite  reconcilable  with 
a  most  disagreeable  deficiency  of  those  social  and 
secular  virtues  which  may  exist  without  the  inspi- 
ration of  Christian  faith.  Doubtless  those  men 
who  think  that  mere  good-nature,  or  the  graceful 
play  and  impulse  of  natural  affections,  or  the 
merely  secular  morality  which  makes  an  agreeable 
neighbor  and  a  wholesome  member  of  society,  is 
an  all-sufficient  substitute  for  religion  —  fall  into  a 
fatal  error.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  those  who 
4 


50  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

make  religion  an  all-sufficient  substitute  for  the 
many  estimable  and  amiable  qualities  of  which  an 
unregenerate  man  is  capable,  and  who,  therefore, 
undertake  to  be  religious  men  without  undertak- 
ing to  be  good  men,  are  equally  mistaken.  There 
is  no  religious  delusion  more  gross  than  that  of  men 
who  expect  to  be  saved  by  a  religiousness  which 
cares  nothing  for  the  things  which  are  "  honest," 
—  estimable,  or  becoming  —  "in  the  sight  of  all 
men." 

No  reader  of  the  Scriptures  can  fail  to  observe 
how  often  the  apostles,  in  their  letters  to  "  saints 
and  faithful  brethren  in  Christ  Jesus,"  urge  them 
to  cultivate  those  ordinary  human  virtues  which 
the  moral  sense  of  all  men  honors,  and  of  which 
there  may  be  beautiful  examples  among  men  who 
know  nothing  of  Christ,  or  who,  having  heard  of 
Christ,  do  not  believe  in  him.  The  thing  to  be 
observed  is  not  that  amenity  of  temper  and  of  man- 
ners, or  an  irreproachable  morality  in  social  and 
civil  relations,  is  represented  as  a  necessary  pre- 
liminary to  the  reconciliation  of  the  soul  with  God ; 
but  that  the  believer  in  Christ,  putting  on  Christ's 
likeness,  and  exercising  himself  unto  godliness,  can 


INTEGRITY  AND  AMIABLENESS.  51 

not  neglect  these  ordinary  human  virtues.  Any 
man,  however  unamiable  in  his  natural  temper, 
and  however  great  his  need  of  moral  reformation 
in  order  to  his  being  loved  or  respected  among 
men,  may  undertake  to  follow  Christ  in  the  con- 
fiding hope  that,  by  the  grace  of  God,  he  shall  attain 
a  perfect  salvation  ;  and  his  undertaking  thus  to 
follow  Christ  is  just  what  is  meant  by  beheving  in 
Christ.  But  if  he  does  thus  undertake,  he  com- 
mits himself,  intelligently  and  with  all  his  heart,  to 
become  "  a  new  creature  "  —  new  in  respect  to 
whatsoever  things  are  "  beautiful  in  the  sight  of  all 
men," — new  in  respect  to  whatsoever  things  in 
human  conduct  are  true  or  honest  or  just  or  pure 
or  lovely  or  of  good  report,  —  as  well  as  in  respect 
to  spiritual  exercises  and  experiences. 

Assuming,  then,  that  you  to  whom  I  am  speaking 
from  this  page  have  undertaken,  or  are  in  the  act 
of  undertaking  thus  to  follow  Christ,  I  have  some 
things  to  say  about  this  particular  side  or  aspect 
of  the  Christian  life.  What  I  say  will  have  no 
other  purpose  than  to  help  you  in  a  life  of  faith 
and  of  devout  and  spiritual  self-discipline. 

First,   then,  let  this  be   distinctly  understood. 


52  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

The  interior  life  of  the  man  who  follows  Christ 
must  have,  for  one  of  its  manifestations,  that  charac- 
ter of  integrity  and  amiableness  in  social  and  civil 
relations  which  the  common  moral  sense  of  men 
instinctively  honors.  A  naturally  amiable  temper, 
a  good  education,  and  the  power  of  merely  secular 
motives,  may  indeed  go  far  towards  forming  such 
a  character  ;  and  often  a  man  fortunately  consti- 
tuted by  nature,  brought  up  under  salutary  re- 
straints and  influences,  and  accustomed  to  cherish 
every  honorable  and  amiable  impulse,  may  be 
greatly  l)eloved  and  honored  without  any  inward 
experience  of  the  gospel  as  a  renewing  power. 
But  if  rehgion  —  that  is,  the  power  of  the  gospel 
applied  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  renew  the  heart  in 
holiness  —  does  not  find  the  man  already  formed 
to  such  a  character,  it  must  reform  him,  —  and  it 
"will.  He  in  whom  the  religion  which  he  professes 
to  have  experienced  does  not  thus  manifest  itself, 
—  he  in  whom  the  Spirit  of  grace  and  holiness 
does  not  actually  produce  these  ordinary  human 
virtues,  —  lacks  an  essential  part  of  the  character 
which  belono-s  to  a  renewed  and  relio;ious  man. 
Whatever  else  he  may  have,  this  deficiency  vitiates 


INTEGRITY  AND  AMIABLENESS.  5B 

his  pretensions  and  forbids  his  hopes.  He  in 
whose  outward  Hfe  there  is  not,  in  consequence 
of  his  rehgious  experience,  more  of  whatsoever 
things  are  true,  —  that  is,  who  is  not  manifestly 
more  to  be  trusted  and  depended  on  in  every 
relation,  —  is  a  deceiver.  He  in  whose  out- 
ward life  there  is  not,  in  consequence  of  his 
following  Christ,  more  of  whatsoever  things  are 
serious  and  dignified,  —  that  is,  who  is  not  more 
sure  to  rise  above  what  is  trifling  and  low,  —  is  a 
deceiver.  He  in  whose  outward  life  there  is  not, 
in  consequence  of  his  reconciliation  to  God,  more 
of  whatsoever  things  are  just,  —  that  is  who  is  not 
more  inflexibly  upright  in  his  intercourse  with  men, 
—  is  a  deceiver.  He  in  whose  life  there  is  not,  in 
consequence  of  his  being  bom  again,  more  of  what- 
soever things  are  pure,  —  that  is,  whose  words  and 
actions  do  not  indicate  a  growing  purity  of  thou§}it 
and  feeling,  —  is  a  deceiver.  He  whose  life  does 
not  exhibit,  in  consequence  of  the  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  upon  his  soul,  more  of  whatsoever 
things  are  lovely,  —  that  is,  who  is  not  more 
amiable,  more  gentle,  more  patient,  more  kind,  or 
who  has  not  more  of  that  which  wins  and  fixes  the 


54  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

affectionate  regard  of  those  with  whom  he  has  to 
do,  —  is  a  deceiver.  He  in  whose  life  there  is  not, 
in  consequence  of  his  emancipation  from  bondao-e 
to  sin,  more  of  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  re- 
port, —  that  is  whose  outward  Hfe  does  not  exhibit, 
on  the  whole,  more  of  those  qualities  which  com- 
mand the  approving  testimony  of  men's  moral 
sense,  —  is  a  deceiver.  All  this  is  -too  plain  to 
need  any  argument. 

But  we  may  take  a  higher  and  wider  view  of 
the  connection  between  the  interior  life  of  Chris- 
tian faith  and  the  cultivation  of  these  ordinary 
human  virtues.  The  culture  of  the  secular  and 
social  virtues, — the  habitual  study  to  acquire  those 
moral  qualities  which  are  "  beautiful  in  the  sight 
of  all  men,"  and  to  acquire  them,  not  for  the  sake 
of  the  secular  advantages  which  attend  them,  but 
for  their  own  sake, — is  no  unimportant  part  of 
the  soul's  self-discipline  for  immortality.  A  truly 
Christian  life  —  a  life  inspired  and  guided  by  the 
knowledge  of  Christ — is  the  life  of  a  redeemed 
soul  educating  and  training  itself  for  God's  service 
here,  and  for  that  boundless  existence  to  which  it 
is  destined  hereafter.     Reorardiua;  rehgion  in  this 

o  o  o 


INTEGRITY  AND  AMIABLENESS.  55 

light,  we  may  say  that  the  conscientious  cultiva- 
tion of  these  moral  qualities  and  habits,  being  a 
part  of  religion,  is  a  part  of  the  soul's  self-discipline 
for  immortality. 

It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  these  qualities  and 
habits,  because  they  are  in  some  sense  a  natural 
outgrowth  of  the  new  life  within,  will  therefore 
come  spontaneously  and  of  course.  A  voluntary 
diligence,  —  a  conscientious  watchfulness  of  effort, 
— is  necessary  to  the  formation  of  a  character  that 
shall  exhibit  and  illustrate  all  that  is  true  and 
dignified  and  just  and  pure  and  lovely  and  of 
good  report.  "  If  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if 
there  be  any  praise,  think  on  these  things."  If 
virtue  itself  is  any  thing  more  than  an  empty 
name,  —  if  tlie  distinction  between  that  which  the 
moral  sense  approves  and  praises  and  that  which 
it  condemns  and  abhors  is  any  thing  more  than  a 
dream,  —  "think  on  these  things."  Think  on 
them,  —  that  is,  more  accurately,  hold  them  in 
estimation  ;  reckon  them  at  their  real  worth.  In 
other  words,  seek  for  these  traits  of  character; 
make  them  your  study  and  pursuit ;  cultivate  them 
as  of  mestimable  value.      If  you  would  be  fully 


56  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

qualified  for  the  service  of  God  in  this  life, — if 
you  would  be  prepared  for  that  higher  career  of 
service  to  which  he  calls  you  in  the  life  to  come, 
— cultivate  these  virtues. 

But  you  ask,  perhaps,  what  connection  is  there 
between  the  culture  of  these  secular  virtues,  and 
of  these  affections  that  have  their  sphere  and  being 
only  in  the  present  life,  and  the  discipline  of  my 
soul  for  the  higher  career  of  its  immortality  ?  So 
have  I  known  a  thoughtless  boy  refusing  to  be- 
lieve that  the  discipline  and  instruction  of  the 
school  had  any  connection  with  his  being  prepared 
for  the  career  which  he  was  destined  to  run  in 
the  years  of  his  manhood.  The  Author  of  our 
immortal  nature  has  placed  us  here  for  a  while, 
in  his  own  wisdom,  and  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
ends  for  which  he  gave  us  being;  and  here,  in 
this  brief  span  of  life,  we  must  be  educated  for 
an  immortal  career  of  holiness,  or  else  we  must 
go  to  our  eternity,  at  the  end,  unfitted,  and  with 
an  account  to  give  of  life  misspent  and  blessed 
opportunities  and  privileges  abused.  Of  the  life 
to  come  we  know  little  beyond  the  fact  that  it 
is,  and  that  its  course,  whether  of  endless  and  joy 


INTEGRITY  AND  AMIABLENESS.  57 

fill  advaucement  in  purity,  love,  and  blessedness, 
or  of  endless  darkness  and  despair,  is  to  be  deter- 
mined by  the  results  of  this  preparatory  stage  of 
being.  But  of  this  present  life,  we  know  that,  in 
one  way  or  another,  all  the  elements  and  condi- 
tions of  it  are  ordered  and  combined  by  infinite 
wisdom,  with  reference  to  that  life  to  come.  We 
know  that,  however  duty  here  may  differ  in  its 
details  from  duty  hereafter,  these  duties  here, — 
all  of  them,  —  the  duties  which  grow  out  of  rela- 
tions soon  to  be  dissolved,  —  the  duties  which  have 
respect  to  interests  transient  in  their  nature, — 
are  duties  not  less  really  than  the  duties  which 
have  respect  immediately  and  exclusively  to  God, 
and  which  grow  directly  out  of  our  relations  to 
him  ;  and  that,  if  performed  as  duties^  tliey  may 
be  the  best  of  all  methods  for  disciplining  the 
soul,  and  training  it  into  fitness  for  the  perform- 
ance of  higher,  yet  analogous  and  kindred  duties, 
in  eternity.  For  example ;  the  relation  of  prop- 
erty or  possession  may  not  exist  hereafter  in  any 
form  in  which  we  can  now  conceive  of  it;  but 
how  easy  is  it  to  understand  that  the  duties  grow- 
ing out  of  this  relation  here,  disciplining  the  soul  to 


58  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

justice,  to  self-denial,  to  industry,  to  beneficence, 
may  be  essential  as  a  preparatoiy  discipline  for  the 
exercise  of  the  same  generic  virtues  in  duties  and 
relations  now  unknown  and  unconceived.  For 
another  example ;  the  daily  household  duties  that 
press  upon  us,  in  the  homely  and  humble  form 
of  care  and  toil  for  bodily  supports  and  comforts,  — 
the  father  and  mother  feeding  the  children,  cloth- 
ing them,  guarding  them  from  danger,  ministering 
to  them  in  sickness,  —  may  be  quite  unknown 
hereafter.  We  may  even  imagine  that,  among  the 
members  of  one  family  on  earth,  there  will  be  in 
eternity  no  mutual  dependence,  no  relation  of 
peculiar  duties  and  affections ;  but  who  can  not  see 
that,  even  in  such  a  case,  the  love,  the  j^atience, 
the  gentleness,  the  confidence,  and  the  gratitude, 
which  are  learned,  or  ought  to  be  learned  in  the 
family,  and  in  the  performance  of  the  humblest 
family  labor,  may  be  of  incalculable  importance  as 
a  part  of  the  soul's  education  for  the  exercise  of 
the  same  virtues  in  relations  of  which  we  have 
now  no  conception,  but  to  which  our  approaching 
change  will  introduce  us. 

Remember,  then,  that  the  devout  and  habitual 


INTEGRITY  AND  AMIABLENESS.  59 

culture  of  all  these  secular  virtues  —  domestic, 
social,  and  civil  —  is  essential  to  the  soul's  self-j 
discipline  for  the  immortal  life  to  come. 

Here  we  come  to  a  view  still  more  practical. 
How  is  such  a  character  to  be  formed  and  culti- 
vated ?  How  may  I  promote  in  myself  the  growth 
of  whatever  in  human  affection  and  conduct  is 
true,  and  whatever  is  noble,  and  whatever  is  just, 
and  whatever  is  pure,  and  whatever  is  amiable 
and  attractive,  and  whatever  is  of  good  report? 
The  answer  to  this  question  divides  itself  into  two 
parts,  neither  of  which  is  complete  by  itself. 

First,  the  character  in  question  may  be  culti- 
vated by  cultivating  the  constitutional  sensibilities 
on  which  it  depends.  These  sensibilities  are  nat- 
ural to  all  men,  not  indeed  in  the  same  degree, 
but  in  various  degrees ;  and  in  all  men  they  may 
be  cultivated,  or  they  may  be  suppressed.  There 
is  in  all  men,  for  example,  a  natural  sensibility  to 
whatsoever  things  are  true,  —  a  sensibility  which 
is  the  foundation  of  the  virtue  of  mutual  fidehty 
among  men.  There  is  a  sensibility  in  your  na- 
ture, prompting  you  to  fulfill  your  engagements. 
Whatever  you  know  that  your  dependents,  your 


60  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

friends,  your  fellow -men  in  whatever  relation, 
may  reasonably  expect  of  you,  —  that  the  sensibil- 
ity I  speak  of  prompts  you  to  do.  '  The  sensibil- 
ity may  be  stronger  in  you,  naturally,  than  it  is  in 
some  men ;  it  may  be  weaker  than  it  is  in  some 
other  men  ;  but,  in  one  degree  or  another,  it  is  an 
element  of  your  constitution,  and  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  every  human  being.  This  sensibility  may 
be  cultivated  and  developed,  till  it  shall  move  as 
with  the  precision  and  force  of  an  instinct;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  resisted,  kept  under, 
and  suppressed,  till  you  shall  become  almost  un- 
conscious of  it.  In  like  manner,  (to  take  another 
example,)  you  are  so  constituted  by  the  Author 
of  your  nature  that  you  feel  yourself  moved  — 
not  irresistibly  impelled,  but  moved  —  to  whatso- 
ever things  are  amiable,  kind,  and  winning.  All 
men  have,  naturally,  the  same  feeling,  not  in  the 
same  degree,  but  in  various  degrees,  according  to 
the  individual  peculiarities  with  which  they  are 
born.  In  you,  in  all  men,  this  sensibility  may  be 
cultivated  and  increased,  or  may  be  stifled  and 
suppressed. 

These  sensibilities  are  suppressed,  subdued,  and 


INTEGRITY  AND  AMIABLENESS.  61 

in  a  measure  extinguished,  by  being  resisted  ana 
counteracted.  No  fact  in  the  natural  history  of 
the  human  mind  is  more  famiharly  known  than 
this.  Every  natural  sensibility  may  be  gradually 
extinguished  by  resistance  and  by  disuse.  The 
robber,  at  first,  struggled  against  his  inborn  sense 
of  justice  to  bring  himself  to  the  crime  which  he 
meditated ;  but,  by  familiarity  with,  crime,  that 
better  sensibihty,  which  at  first  revolted  at  the 
thought  of  plundering  his  neighbor,  grows  faint 
and  ineffective.  So  each  of  the  human  sensibili- 
ties related  to  these  secular  virtues  may  be  dead- 
ened by  habitual  suppression,  or  by  the  habitual 
indulgence  of  antagonist  passions.  You  may  re- 
sist the  impulse  which  moves  you  to  whatsoever 
things  are  true ;  and,  by  the  resistance,  the  spring 
from  which  that  impulse  comes  is  weakened.  You 
may  refuse  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  impulse 
which  moves  you  to  act  in  accordance  with  what- 
soever things  are  honorable,  and  at  each  refusal 
that  impulse  loses  somewhat  of  its  power.  You 
may  hold  back  from  whatsoever  things  are  de- 
manded by  an  ingenuous  sense  of  justice,  or  from 
whatsoever  things  are  pure,  or  lovely,  or  of  good 


62  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

report ;  and  all  those  things  will  become,  gradu- 
ally yet  infallibly,  more  and  more  alien  to  your 
nature ;  your  soul  will  have  less  and  less  affinity 
for  such  things.  Just  so,  on  the  other  hand, 
these  impulses,  by  yielding  to  them  and  bringing 
to  their  aid  the  power  of  habit,  may  be  made 
continually  more  effectual.  Let  your  thoughts 
be  accustomed  to  observe,  and  your  will  to  honor 
with  its  free  homage,  the  beauty  of  whatsoever 
things  are  true,  or  honest,  or  just,  or  lovely, 
or  of  good  report;  and  the  sensibiHties  which 
recognize  these  things  and  move  you  to  pursue 
them  will  become  more  vivid,  more  distinct,  more 
prompt  and  powerful  in  their  impulse  on  the 
soul.  Think  on  these  things.  Cultivate  the  sense 
of  their  worth  and  their  beauty.  Let  the  habits 
of  your  mind  be  formed  to  obey  these  sensibili- 
ties ;  be  careful  to  allow  in  yourself  nothing  that 
is  unamiable,  ungenerous,  or  mean,  and  you  will 
find  that  you  are  training  yourself  to  do,  as  if  by 
an  unconscious  instinct,  whatsoever  things  are 
true,  or  dignified,  or  just,  or  pure,  or  lovely,  or 
of  good  report. 

But  I  do  not  forget  that  I  am  dealing  with  you 


INTEGRITY  AND  AMIABLENESS.  63 

to  help  you  in  the  beginning  and  progress  of  a 
rehgious  Hfe.  I  say  then,  secondly,  that  the  secu- 
lar and  social  virtues  which  I  am  now  commend- 
ing to  your  attention  can  not  be  cultivated  in  their 
due  relation  to  the  Christian  life  and  spirit,  unless 
the  natural  sensibilities  which  prompt  them  are 
associated  with  higher  affections.  These  sensibil- 
ities are  a  constituent  part  of  that  curiously- 
wrought  and  complicated  nature  which  was  cre- 
ated in  the  image  of  God.  They  are  a  portion 
of  that  nature  which  was  designed  to  attain  its 
highest  dignity  and  blessedness  in  the  conscious  ser- 
vice of  God,  and  in  a  willing  conformity  to  him. 
These  sensibilities,  therefore,  can  have  their  best 
culture  and  their  fairest  and  thriftiest  growth  only 
when  they  have  their  life  in  a  natural  and  healthy 
connection  with  nobler  principles.  If  you  would 
cultivate  in  your  own  conduct,  amid  the  tempta- 
tions of  this  world,  whatsoever  things  are  true,  you 
must  learn  to  adore,  to  fear,  to  love  in  filial  con- 
fidence, the  God  of  truth.  If  you  would  exhibit 
in  your  own  character  and  life  whatsoever  things 
are  worthy  of  reverent  regard,  you  must  learn  to 
walk  with  God  by  faith,  and  to  live  in  the  habit 


64  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

of  a  liigli  and  blessed  intercourse  with  him.  If 
you  would  cultivate  in  your  soul  the  sense  and 
love  of  justice,  you  must  find  your  ideal  of  justice 
in  God.  If  you  would  wear  the  image  of  what- 
soever is  pure  or  lovely  or  of  good  report,  you 
must  sit  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  be  led  by  him 
to  the  knowledge  of  infinite  purity  and  infinite 
love. 

You  see  what  difference  there  is  in  this  respect 
between  the  man  who  has  learned  to  trust  in 
Christ,  as  a  Saviour  from  sin,  and  the  man,  how- 
ever amiable  or  generous,  who  is  living  without 
God  in  the  world.  The  latter  is  just  what  his 
constitutional  impulses  and  his  early  education 
have  made  him,  and  he  has  no  expectation  of 
becoming  better  than  he  is.  The  other  confesses 
to  himself  that  he  is  not  what  he  ought  to  be; 
he  asks  to  understand  his  errors ;  he  prays  to  be 
delivered  even  from  the  faults  of  which  he  is  un- 
conscious ;  he  is  watchful  against  his  own  infirmi- 
ties ;  and,  depending  on  the  offers  and  promises 
of  God  in  the  gospel,  he  is  devoutly  aspiring  to 
become  like  Christ,  and  so  to  be  conformed  to  the 
will  and  image  of  God.     In  his  habitual  thought. 


INTEGRITY  AND  AMIABLENESS.  65 

all  secular  and  social  duties,  —  all  the  duties  of 
industry  and  fidelity,  of  kindness  and  courtesy,  of 
justice  and  of  mercy,  —  are  hallowed  and  elevated 
by  their  relation  to  God,  to  his  own  emancipation 
from  sin,  and  to  eternity.  By  all  the  discipline 
of  duty  in  this  Hfe,  —  by  all  the  affections  and  re- 
sponsibilities that  connect  him  with  human  society, 
—  the  care  of  a  redeeming  God  is  training  him, 
and  he,  entering  into  God's  plan,  is  training  him- 
self for  an  immortal  life  of  duty  and  of  love. 

Are  you  thus   training  your  soul   for  immor- 
tality? 


CHAPTER  IV. 


FAITH   AND   MANLINESS. 


"Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling, 
for  it  is  God  which  worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  do,  of 
his  good  pleasure.'''    Phil.  iv.  12,  13. 

"  Building  up  yourselves  on  your  most  holy  Mth."  Jude, 
20. 

"According  as  his  divine  power  hath  given  unto  us  all 
things  that  pertain  unto  Hfe  and  godliness,  through  the 
knowledge  of  him  that  hath  called  us  to  glory  and  virtue, 
whereby  are  given  unto  us  exceeding  great  and  precious 
promises,  that  by  these  ye  might  be  made  partakers  of  the 
divine  nature,  having  escaped  the  corruption  that  is  in  the 
world  through  lust;  and,  beside  this,  giving  all  diUgence, 
add  to  your  faith  virtue."    2  Pet.  i.  3-5. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


FAITH    AND    MANLINESS. 


Why  the  gospel  is  given  to  you.  Encouragements  to  dili- 
gence in  self-discipline.  Faith  without  virtue,  —  not  necessa« 
rily  licentious,  —  may  be  intellectual,  — may  be  sentimental  and 
aesthetic.     Virtue  added  to  faith.     How? 

If  you  are  ready  to  accept  that  salvation  which 
is  offered  to  you  in  the  name  of  Christ,  —  if  you 
are  ready  to  ask,  not  merely,  What  shall  I  do  to 
be  saved  from  the  fearful  looking  for  of  judg- 
ment and  fiery  indignation  ?  —  but  also,  What 
shall  I  do  to  be  saved  from  sin  ?  —  it  will  be 
easy  to  lead  you,  by  God's  help,  in  the  right 
way.  Your  desire  is  to  attain  a  truly  and  thor- 
oughly Christian  character;  and  you  have  made 
a  covenant  with  yourself  and  with  God  that 
you  will  use  all  diligence  to  that  end.  What  I 
propose,  therefore,  is  not  to  argue  with  you,  nor 
to  expostulate,  nor  to  ply  you  with  exciting  ap- 
peals to  sensibility,  but  to  help  you  by  showing 


70  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

you  what  it  is  which  constitutes  a  truly  and 
thoroughly  Christian  character,  and  by  what 
means  and  endeavors  you  may  attain  to  it. 

Sometimes  in  the  Scriptures  the  entire  Chris- 
tian character  is  summed  up  in  a  single  word 
or  phrase,  —  such  as  faiih^  or  love^  or  the  knowl- 
edge of  God,  or  obedience  to  the  truth.  In  that 
mode  of  speech,  it  seems  to  be  assumed  that  any 
one  trait  of  holiness  must  of  course  involve  and 
imply  every  other.  In  other  passages,  we  have 
a  catalogue  of  Christian  graces,  "fruits  of  the 
Spirit,"  the  elements  of  character,  which,  in  their 
union,  are  Christian  holiness,  and  which  are  to 
be  severally  cultivated  by  him  who  would  be 
saved  through  Christ.  These  two  modes  of 
speaking  are  by  no  means  inconsistent  with  each 
other.  All  the  Christian  graces  may  grow  nat- 
urally from  one  stock,  and  the  existence  of  any 
one  of  them,  in  reality  and  simplicity,  may  in- 
volve the  existence,  in  some  degree,  of  all  the 
rest;  and  yet  each  of  these  graces  may  need, 
in  order  to  its  growth  and  its  full  manifestation 
in  the  life,  a  diligent  cultivation  on  the  part  of 
the  renewed  and  struggling  soul. 


FAITH  AND  MANLINESS.  71 

I  have  already  reminded  you,  more  tlian  once, 
of  the  cardinal  fact  that  the  gospel  is  given  to 
you  for  the  express  purpose  of  calling  you  and 
helping  you  to  be  saved.  That  fact  is  the  rea- 
son why  your  salvation,  from  first  to  last,  de- 
pends on  your  believing  the  gospel.  Your  be- 
lieving the  gospel,  in  the  sense  of  accepting  it 
and  trusting  in  it,  implies  that  you  are  to  avail 
yourself  of  its  offers.  No  man  can  really  ac- 
cept the  gospel  and  avail  himself  of  it  as  a  way 
of  salvation  from  sin,  who  does  not  undertake 
to  follow  Christ  in  newness  of  life.  His  be- 
lieving the  gospel  implies,  of  course,  that  he  is 
to  build  up  himself  on  his  most  holy  faith  ;  and 
that  he  is  to  add  to  his  faith  virtue,  or  a  manly 
well-doing. 

All  that  God  has  done  to  save  you,  —  first  by 
providing  and  proclaiming  a  free  forgiveness 
through  Christ,  and  then  by  the  promise  and 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  —  encourages  you  and 
summons  you  to  diligence  that  you  may  make 
your  calling  and  election  sure.  One  apostle 
says,  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear 
and   trembling,  for   it   is    God  who  worketh   in 


72  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

you."  Another  expands  the  same  thought  into 
particulars.  First,  the  divine  power  has  en- 
riched us  with  all  things  necessary  to  spiritual 
life,  by  giving  us  the  knowledge  of  a  Saviour, 
Secondly,  Christ  calls  us,  by  bringing  life  and 
immortality  to  light,  —  by  setting  before  us  glory 
and  virtue  as  one  and  inseparable.  Thirdly, 
there  are  given  to  us  exceeding  great  and  pre- 
cious promises,  that  by  them,  we,  fleeing  from 
the  corruption  that  is  in  the  world,  may  become 
partakers  of  a  divine  nature.  Look  at  these 
several  considerations,  and  think  how  they  urge 
you  to  work  out  your  own  salvation  in  a  dili- 
gent self-discipline. 

Whatever  pertains  to  life  and  godliness, — 
whatever  is  necessary  to  your  beginning  and 
pursuing  such  a  life,  —  that  God  has  given  you, 
by  giving  you  a  knowledge  of  Christ.  He  who 
knows  Christ,  knows  that  there  is  pardon  for 
sinners  ;  —  that  a  reconciliation  and  perpetual 
friendship  between  his  own  soul  and  the  holy 
God  is  a  practicable  thing ;  —  that  his  guilt,  and 
all  the  infirmity  and  perverseness  of  which  he 
is  conscious,  need  not  hinder  him  from   coming 


FAITH  AND  MANLINESS.  73 

to  God  in  a  penitent  submission,  nor  from  be- 
ing owned  of  God  as  a  forgiven  and  beloved 
child, 

Christ  calls  you,  by  the  glory  and  virtue  which 
he  sets  before  you.  Think  who  calls  you.  He 
who  is  himself  "  the  brightness  of  the  Father's 
glory."  He  who,  in  your  nature,  compassed 
about  with  human  temptations  like  as  you  are, 
has  magnified  and  honored  the  law  of  perfect 
holiness,  and  who  thus  shows  you  in  his  own 
person  all  true  glory  and  virtue.  He  calls  you, 
not  only  by  his  word  of  invitation,  but  by  his 
example  and  by  his  mediation.  He  calls  you  to  a 
glory  like  his  own,  —  a  glory  not  factitious  nor 
dependent  on  circumstances,  not  in  any  way  exter- 
nal to  yourself,  but  the  glory  of  virtue  or  true 
manliness,  —  a  glory  which  is  simply  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  dignity  and  blessedness  for  which  your 
spirit,  with  its  immortal  powers  of  thought,  af- 
fection, and  activity,  was  created,  —  a  glory 
which  is  in  truth  the  glory  of  God  himself  shin- 
ing forth  from  within  you.  Under  such  a  call, 
—  when  Christ  the  Redeemer  calls  you,  by  set- 
ting before  you  the  hope  of  immortal  glory  and 


74  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

virtue,  - —  how  urgently  does  the  deep  sense  of 
what  you  are  and  of  what  you  may  become 
move  you  to  give  yourself  at  once  to  the  dili- 
gent training  of  yourself  in  holiness. 

There  are  given  to  you  exceeding  great  and 
precious  promises.  What  are  they  ?  The  prom- 
ise of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  inward  teacher,  com- 
forter, and  guide  of  those  who  trust  in  Christ. 
The  promise  from  the  ascending  Saviour,  "  Lo,  I 
am  with  you  always ! "  The  promise  from  the 
bosom  of  Almighty  love,  "  My  grace  shall  be  suf- 
ficient for  thee ;  "  "I  will  never  leave  thee  nor  for- 
sake thee."  The  promise,  "  No  good  thing  will 
be  withheld  from  them  that  walk  uprightly." 
Such  promises  are  given  to  you,  that  by  them, 
overcoming  the  temptations  that  address  them- 
selves to  so  many  inferior  sensibilities,  you  may 
escape  the  corruption  that  is  in  the  world  through 
lust,  and  may  be  transformed  into  the  likeness  of 
God's  own  purity  and  love.  Having,  therefore, 
these  promises,  how  cogent  is  the  inference,  — 
"  Let  us  cleanse  ourselves  from  all  Jilthiness  of  the 
flesh  and  spirit,  perfecting  holiness  in  the  fear  of 
God." 


FAITH  AND  MANLINESS.  75 

You  believe,  then,  the  "  faithful  saying  and 
worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came 
into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  Trusting  in  that 
testimony  and  in  the  exceeding  great  and  precious 
promises  which  it  includes,  you  desire  to  build  up 
yourself  on  that  most  holy  faith.  The  question  is, 
how  you  are  to  build,  —  what  you  are  to  do  in  the 
process  of  working  out  your  salvation.  You  are 
resolved  and  ready  to  use  all*  diligence  that  you 
may  make  your  calling  and  election  sure ;  and  the 
question  is,  ho"\v  you  are  to  do  it  ?  You  tell  me 
that  you  believe  the  gospel  —  that  you  are  not 
hindered  by  doubts  on  the  question  whether  God 
is  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to  himself;  but 
you  ask,  "  What  am  I  to  do  ?  "  Just  here  I  meet 
you,  in  Christ's  name,  with  an  answer  which  can 
not  be  disputed  :  — 

"ADD    TO    YOUR    FAITH    VIRTUE." 

Such  a  precept  implies  that,  in  some  sense,  there 
may  be  faith  without  virtue  ;  or,  at  least,  that  faith 
may  be  contemplated  as  disjoined  from  virtue,  even 
when  it  is  in  some  sense  Christian  faith.  What  is 
that  faith  to  which  virtue  is  not  supplied  ? 


76  CHRISTIAN"  SELF-CULTURE. 

It  is  not,  necessarily,  a  licentious  religion  like 
that  antinomianism,  theoretical  and  practical, 
which  sometimes  appears  in  the  garb  of  zeal  for 
the  gospel  of  salvation  by  grace  alone.  It  may 
be  something  more  than  that  gross  caricature  of 
religion  which  satisfies  itself  with  its  own  dogmas, 
and  despises  the  restraints  of  morality.  Virtue, 
as  the  word  is  now  currently  used,  is  often  regarded 
as  a  merely  negative  quality,  —  an  exemption  from 
certain  outward  vices,  particularly  fraud  and  im- 
purity. The  word,  however,  in  its  ancient  and 
proper  meaning,  implies  much  more  than  this  ;  it 
means  something  positive ;  it  means  strength, 
manliness,  worth.  In  its  primitive  sense,  the  word 
virtue  (and  also  the  Greek  word  thus  translated) 
includes  the  idea  of  valor,  or  courage  and  strength 
for  war,  —  the  quality  most  appreciated  and  hon- 
ored in  that  state  of  society  in  which  war  is  the 
chief  test  of  manhood.  Faith,  then,  though  it  hap- 
pens to  coexist  with  outward  decency  and  negative 
morality,  may  yet  be  faith  without  virtue.  Faith 
without  virtue,  in  the  true  sense  of  words,  is  faith 
without  real  manliness,  —  faith  which  imparts  no 
positive  strength  or  worth  to  the   soul. 


FAITH  AND  MANLINESS.  77 

Christian  faith,  in  its  largest  sense,  and  indeed 
in  every  sense,  is  the  opposite  of  infidelity,  or  of 
the  unbelief  which  rejects  Christ  and  the  Word  of 
God.  Faith,  in  whatever  sense,  is  the  belief  of 
Christian  truth.  Bearing  this  in  mind,  you  may 
^ee  more  distinctly  what  faith  is  when  disjoined 
from  its  proper  relation  to  virtue. 

There  may  be  a  merely  intellectual  state  of 
mind,  which,  under  the  force  of  tradition  or  author- 
ity, or  in  view  of  historical  or  other  arguments, 
recognizes  the  gospel  of  Christ  as  from  God,  and 
recognizes  the  Scriptures  as  a  true  record  of  God's 
revelations  to  men,  and  recognizes  certain  propo- 
sitions as  revealed  and  recorded  in  the  Scriptures. 
Undoubtedly,  this  is  faith  or  belief,  so  far  as  it  goes. 
So  far,  it  is  the  same  thing  with  the  faith  of  the 
humblest,  most  penitent,  and  most  devoted  be- 
liever. But  if  it  goes  no  farther,  it  is  faith  with- 
out virtue,  —  it  is  dead ;  it  is  not  faith  in  that  higher 
and  more  complex  sense  in  which  the  gospel  tells 
us,  "  He  that  believeth  shall  be  saved  ;  "  it  is  not 
faith  in  that  less  analytic  and  more  Christian  use 
of  the  word  in  which  "  faith  is  the  substance  of 
things  hoped  for,  and  the  evidence  of  things  not 


78  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

seen."  The  faith  which  is  only  orthodox,  however 
logical,  however  intelligent  and  exact,  is  faith  with- 
out virtue. 

But  faith  without  virtue  maybe  something  more 
than  this.  There  may  be  a  habit  of  mind,  not 
simply  intellectual  but  sentimental,  which  is  only 
another  style  of  the  faith  to  which  virtue  has  not 
been  added.  In  the  intellectual  apprehension  of 
God,  —  the  eternal  source  of  being,  the  wise  and 
beneficent  Creator,  —  the  ever-present,  sustaining, 
and  guiding  energy  of  the  universe,  —  the  ruler 
and  judge  of  his  responsible  creatures  in  all  the 
worlds  of  his  infinite  empire,  —  in  the  mere  idea 
of  God  as  the  Bible  reveals  him  to  our  faculty  of 
knowledge, — there  is  something  which  kindles  the 
natural  sensibilities  of  wonder  and  awe,  and 
wakens  even  a  sluggish  soul  to  emotion.  In  the 
idea  of  eternity,  and  especially  in  the  thought  of 
a  personal  immortality,  there  is  something  which 
dilates  the  mind  with  the  sense  of  grandeur,  and 
thrills  it  with  the  feeling  of  an  infinite  need.  In 
the  thought  of  responsibility  and  of  eternal  retri- 
butions, there  is  something  which  compels  the  soul 
to  tremble.     So  in  the  history  and  character  of 


FAITH  AND  MANLINESS.  79 

Jesus  Christ,  there  is  something  which  speaks  to 
the  tenderest  and  the  subhmest  sensibilities  of 
every  human  being.  No  man  can  intelhgently 
trace  the  story  of  redemption,  —  from  the  manger- 
cradle  at  Bethlehem  to  the  cross  and  the  tomb, 
and  thence  to  the  ascension  from  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  —  and  not  feel,  to  some  extent,  the  power  of 
it  on  his  human  sensibihties.  All  this  awakened 
sensibility  may  be  added  to  the  intellectual  recog- 
nition of  Christianity  as  historically  and  doctrin- 
ally  true,  while  yet  the  virtue  of  which  we  are 
speaking  is  absent.  This,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is  faith. 
So  far  as  it  goes,  it  is  identical  with  the  faith  of 
the  humblest  and  hohest  mind.  But  all  this,  if  it 
stops  here,  exhausting  itself  in  mere  feeling,  how- 
ever intense  or  however  refined,  is  not  faith,  in 
that  more  complex  sense  in  which  faith  accom- 
panies salvation.  Even  'at  this  point,  though  the 
feeling  be  ever  so  deep  and  strong,  and  ever  so 
delightful,  the  mind's  reception  of  the  truth  is  faith 
only  in  that  analytic  sense  in  which  faith  is  dead. 
The  faith  of  mere  sentiment  and  emotion,  as  really 
as  the  faith  of  mere  logic  and  doctrine,  is  faith 
without  virtue,  belief  without  true  manliness. 


80  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

You  are  to  remember,  then,  that  faith  is  com- 
plete, and  is  really  itself,  only  when  it  stands  in 
its  proper  relation  to  virtue ;  that  is,  when  it  lives 
in  a  vital  connection  with  true  worth,  with  active 
strength,  with  manliness  of  soul.  In  other  words, 
faith  is  an  unfinished  and  fragmentary,  and  there- 
fore an  unnatural  thing,  unless  to  faith  is  added 
virtue.  But  how  is  it  that,  when  virtue  is  added 
to  faith,  the  faith  is  completed  and  becomes  itself? 
How  is  it  that  faith  is  developed  into  virtue? 
What  is  the  vital  relation  of  the  one  to  the  other  ? 

I  answer,  faith  begins  to  be  unfolded  into  virtue, 
when  the  intellectual  reception  of  the  gospel  as 
true,  with  the  naturally  attendant  feeling,  is  ac- 
companied by  the  appropriate  action  of  the  moral 
powers.  There  may  be,  in  some  sense,  just  con- 
ceptions or  intellectual  views  of  things  not  seen  ; 
and  there  may  be  emotions  of  wonder  and  awe,  of 
fear,  of  desire,  of  hope,  and  even  of  delight,  while 
yet  there  is  no  sovereignty  of  right  principle  and 
purpose  within  the  soul,  no  force  of  restraining  and 
controlling  conscience,  no  action  of  the  moral 
powers  in  conformity  with  truth  and  obligation. 
But  when  these  sensibilities,  fed  by  the  contempla- 


FAITH  AND  MANLINESS.  81 

tion  of  the  truth,  serve  to  quicken  and  invigorate 
the  conscience,  and  when,  instead  of  terminating 
in  mere  emotion,  they  terminate  in  right  action, 
swaying  the  will  and  all  the  moral  and  responsible 
nature  to  those  inclinations  and  affections,  and  to 
those  aims  and  efforts  in  life,  which  constitute  true 
manhood,  —  when  thus  all  that  the  gospel  reveals 
of  majesty  and  glory,  of  terror  and  mercy,  of  pity 
and  of  love,  begins  to  be  the  spring  of  action 
in  the  soul,  —  then  to  faith  is  added  something 
of  virtue,  and  faith  begins  to  show  itself  in  its 
completeness, — not  dead  but  living,  —  a  vital  force. 
Then  it  is,  and  not  till  then,  that  faith  begins  to 
"  work  by  love,"  and  to  take  hold  upon  eternal 
life. 

The  progress  of  faith,  as  it  is  unfolded  into 
virtue,  may  be  delineated  by  tracing  the  progressive 
subjugation  of  the  soul  in  all  its  habits  to  the  power 
of  conscience  and  to  the  will  of  God.  When  the 
soul  is  not  only  impelled  to'individual  acts  of  man- 
liness by  overmastering  appeals,  but  is  formed  to 
habits  of  manliness  by  the  steady  influence  of  eter- 
nal things  upon  the  thoughts  and  the  unexcited 
feelings,  —  when,    through    the    long-accustomed 


82  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

regard  of  things  not  seen,  temptation  gradually 
loses  its  power,  and  duty  is  performed,  —  not  reluc- 
tantly, nor  as  the  result  of  a  struggle  against  old 
propensities,  but  promptly,  gladly,  with  undivided 
energy,  —  then  virtue  is  added  to  faith.  Then  it 
is  that  faith  is  complete,  by  being  the  source  from 
which  the  soul  is  supplied,  unfailingly,  with  manly 
strength  for  all  responsibility,  and  with  a  spontane- 
ous earnestness  in  duty. 

We  are  now  prepared  for  the  more  immediately 
practical  question  :  How,  by  what  diligence,  is 
this  result  to  be  realized  ?  I  will  suppose  that  this 
question  is  your  question.  I  will  suppose  that  you, 
to  whom  I  am  speaking  from  this  page,  are  asking 
how  you  may  thus  build  up  yourself  on  your  most 
holy  faith,  —  by  what  endeavors  of  self-discipline 
your  belief  of  the  gospel  may  be  unfolded  into 
virtue.  Assuming  that  you  are  in  earnest,  I  will 
answer  your  question,  not  by  propounding  particu- 
lar rules  of  self-discipliile,  but  rather  by  suggesting 
to  you  some  general  views,  which,  if  you  receive 
them  and  act  upon  them,  may  be  better  to  you 
than  much  minute  instruction. 

1.    Remember,  then,  that  to  perform   all  the 


FAITH  AND  MANLINESS.  83 

duties  of  your  allotted  place  and  relations  in  this 
life  is  the  service  to  which  God  is  calling  you. 
This  is  the  way  in  which  you  are  to  serve  the  will 
of  God  in  your  generation.  God  has  made  you, 
not  for  mere  contemplation,  not  for  the  acquisition 
and  enjoyment  of  knowledge  alone,  not  merely  to 
see  and  to  know  even  the  highest  and  most  glori- 
ous of  all  themes  of  thought ;  but  for  something 
better  and  nobler.  God  has  made  you,  not  for 
mere  feeling,  and  that  kind  of  enjoyment  which 
consists  in  feeling  only  ;  but  for  something  higher 
and  better.  God  has  made  you  for  work,  and  he 
has  given  you  work  to  do.  The  end  for  which  all 
your  powers  are  given  is  not  thought,  nor  emotion, 
but  duty, — work  to  be  done  for  God,  the  infinite  and 
universal  worker.  Remember  God  has  placed  you 
here  not  merely  to  know  and  to  feel,  not  merely 
to  worship  in  prayer  and  praise,  not  merely  to  be 
enraptured  with  the  sublime  and  the  beautiful  in 
God,  and  in  his  works  and  ways,  but  to  work. 
And  what  is  the  work  which  God  has  given  you 
to  do  ?  What  is  the  work  which  he  puts  to  your 
hand,  day  by  day  ?  That  work  you  are  to  do  for 
him.      That  work  is  duty;    and    duty,  however 


84  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

humble  may  be  the  sphere  in  which  it  is  to  be  per- 
formed, is  something  higher  than  all  the  activity 
of  mere  thought  or  all  the  rapture  of  emotion. 
The  duties  of  your  allotted  place  and  relations  in 
this  world, — the  work  which  he  gives  you  the  oppor- 
tunity of  doing, — the  honest  and  useful  work  (honest 
because  useful)  which  belongs  to  your  position  as 
a  member  of  the  great  human  family,  —  the  whole 
of  it,  including  all  that  you  can  do  to  make  any 
human  being  better  or  happier,  —  is  the  service  to 
which  God  is  now  calling  you.  Remember  this, 
and  you  will  never  fail  to  realize  that  the  religion 
of  mere  knowledge  and  intellectual  belief  is  worth- 
less, and  that  the  religion  of  mere  sentimentalism 
is  no  better.  Remember  this  ;  remember  that  the 
service  to  which  God  calls  you  is  not  mere  medi- 
tation or  emotion,  but  duty,  —  duty  in  every  rela- 
tion of  man  to  man  or  of  man  to  God  ;  and  all  the 
grandeur  and  impressiveness  that  there  is  in  the 
objects  of  faith  becomes  a-  living  power  to  waken 
and  impel  the  conscience. 

2.  Remember  that  unless  religion  has  this  effi- 
cacy  upon  your  conscience,  and  through  your 
conscience  upon  your  entire  character,  the  whole 


FAITH  AND  MANLINESS.  85 

apparatus  and  discipline  of  religion  is  in  your  case 
a  failure.  The  Bible,  prayer,  the  Sabbath,  the 
house  of  God,  the  preaching  of  the  Word,  and 
the  formal  communion  of  God's  people  with  each 
other  and  with  Christ,  are  what  I  mean  by  the 
apparatus  and  discipline  of  religion.  The  end  at 
which  all  these  things  aim  is  that  the  soul  may 
be  brought  under  the  dominion  of  the  high  and 
holy  will  of  God.  Subjection  to  God  —  or,  what 
is  the  same  thing,  subjection  to  duty  —  is  the  only 
true  manliness,  for  it  is  the  chief  end  of  man. 
Conscience,  echoing  the  voice  of  God,  and  sway- 
ing the  soul  to  a  willing  obedience,  —  conscience, 
communing  with  God,  and  drinking  in  light  and 
life  from  the  glory  of  his  countenance,  —  con- 
science,  acting  not  as  an  accuser  only,  to  terrify 
the  soul  with  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of 
judgment,  but  as  a  guide  to  lead  the  soul  in  paths 
of  wisdom  and  of  peace,  —  is  the  highest  noble- 
ness of  man.  And  all  religion,  or  rather  all  re- 
ligiousness, —  whether  it  be  the  religiousness  of 
formalism,  or  the  religiousness  of  dogmatism,  or 
the  religiousness  of  sentimentalism,  —  all  religious 
service  and  ceremony,  —  all  religious  knowledge, 


86  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

—  all  religious  feeling,  —  which  does  not  quicken 
the  conscience  into  activity  and  dominion  in  the 
soul,  is  a  failure. 

3.  I  may  answer  your  question,  then,  in  this 
one  comprehensive  precept :  If  you  would  build 
up  yourself  on  your  most  holy  faith,  adding  to 
your  faith  virtue,  walk  hy  faith.  You  say  that 
you  believe  the  gospel ;  then  let  that  which  you 
believe  inspire  and  control  your  daily  activity. 
Faith,  in  the  most  analytic  sense,  is  the  knowledge 
and  belief  of  things  not  seen.  He  who  walks  by 
sight,  —  no  matter  how  much  he  knows  nor  how 
much  he  feels  of  things  beyond  the  vail,  —  he  who 
in  the  daily  work  of  life,  in  the  toils  and  struggles 
through  which  the  providence  of  God  is  leading 
him,  governs  himself  only  by  considerations  from 
the  sphere  of  the  things  which  are  transient  and 
visible,  —  will  never  add  to  his  faith  virtue.  But 
if  you  will,  from  this  time  forward,  walk  by  faith, 

—  if  you  will  henceforth  bring  your  employments, 
your  plans  and  undertakings,  your  hopes  and 
aims,  your  pleasures  and  amusements,  into  the 
light  of  those  invisible  and  eternal  things  which 
your  belief  recognizes,  and  will  govern  yourself 


FAITH  AND  MANLINESS.  87 

accordingly,  —  your  faith,  instead  of  lying  fruitless 
and  dead  in  the  mind,  a  matter  of  mere  intelli- 
gence or  mere  sentiment,  will  henceforth  be  a 
practical  thing,  translating  thought  and  emotion 
into  manly  action,  and  finding  itself  completed  in 
virtue. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


ENLIGHTENED     CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 


"  As  concerning,  therefore,  the  eating  of  those  things  that 
are  offered  in  sacrifice  to  idols,  we  know  that  an  idol  is  noth- 
ing in  the  world,  and  that  there  is  none  other  God  but  one : 
for  though  there  be  that  are  called  gods,  whether  in  heaven  or 
in  earth  (as  there  be  gods  many  and  lords  many) ;  yet  to  us 
there  is  but  one  God,  the  Father,  of  whom  are  all  things,  and 
we  in  him;  and  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  are  all 
things,  and  we  by  him.  Howbeit  there  is  not  in  every  man 
that  KNOWLEDGE :  for  some  with  conscience  of  the  idol  unto 
this  hour  eat  it  as  a  thing  offered  unto  an  idol ;  and  their  con- 
science, being  weak,  is  defiled."     1  Cor.  viii.  4-7. 

"  Brethren,  be  not  children  in  understanding :  howbeit  in 
malice  be  ye  children,  but  in  undeestanding  be  te  men.'* 
1  Cor.  xiv.  20. 

"  Be  ye  not  unwise,  but  understanding  what  the  will  of  the 
Lord  is."    Eph.  v.  17. 

"  And  this  I  pray,  that  your  love  may  abound  yet  more  and 
more  in  knowledge  and  in  all  judgment."    Phil.  i.  9. 

"  Giving  all  diligence,  add  to  your  faith  virtue ;  and  to 
virtue,  knowledge."    2  Pet.  i.  5. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ENLIGHTENED    CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 

Add  to  virtue  knowledge.  Eelation  of  religious  knowledge 
to  Christian  character.  Necessity  of  knowing  what  is  right, 
in  order  to  do  what  is  right.  An  illustration  from  the  New 
Testament.  Defects  of  virtue  without  knowledge.  Morbid 
scrupulousness,  —  a  servile  spirit,  —  bigotry.  When  virtue  is 
completed  in  knowledge,  the  purpose  of  well-doing  is  enlivened 
and  invigorated,  and  becomes  an  enhghtened  conscientious- 
ness. 

Assuming,  now,  that  you  humbly  trust  in  the 
grace  of  God,  and  that,  depending  on  Christ  for 
reconciliation  to  God  and  for  strength  and  victory 
in  the  conflict  with  evil,  you  have  heartily  under- 
taken to  follow  Christ  in  all  well-doing,  I  ask  for 
your  serious  attention  while  I  attempt  to  show 
you  another  aspect  of  progress  in  the  Christian 
life.  You  have  undertaken  a  life -long  work  of 
self-discipline.  You  are  resolved  that  henceforth 
the  great  business  of  your  life  shall  be  to  do  God's 
will,  trusting  in  his  mercy  and  his  promised  help, 


92  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTUEE. 

and  so  training  yourself  for  your  immortality. 
Thus  you  hope  to  be  progressively  emancipated 
from  the  power  of  sin,  and  transformed  by  the 
renewing  of  your  mind. 

Such  progress  can  not  be  achieved  by  mere 
strength  of  will.  The  purpose  to  do  right,  always 
and  in  all  things,  is  not  all  that  is  necessary  to  a 
perfect  well-doing.  In  order  to  do  right,  you 
must  know  what  is  right.  The  manliest,  most 
strenuous,  and  most  conscientious  purpose  will 
often  err,  unless  it  be  guided  by  intelligence.  It 
is  not  enough  that  you  add  to  your  faith  virtue ; 
your  manly  purpose  of  well-doing  must  be  divinely 
enlightened.     You  must  add 

"  TO    VIRTUE    KNOWLEDGE." 

If  we  take  the  word  knowledge  in  its  widest 
sense,  there  is  a  beautiful  fitness  in  the  conjunction 
of  knowledge  with  that  manly  conscientiousness 
which  is  the  legitimate  consequence  of  faith  in 
the  word  of  God.  The  man  who  receives  the 
gospel  as  his  hope,  and  who,  with  a  quickened 
conscience  and  a  resolute  determination,  under- 
takes to  obey  and  follow  Christ,  must  be,  in  pro- 


ENLIGHTENED  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.  93 

portion  to  his  faculties,  his  opportunities,  and  his 
means  of  acquiring  knowledge,  an  intelligent  man. 
Especially  is  he  bound  to  be  intelligent  in  the 
things  which  immediately  concern  his  faith  and 
duty  as  a  follower  of  Christ.  From  the  beginning 
of  his  confidence  and  hope,  from  his  first  experi- 
ence of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  onward 
through  all  his  progress  as  a  believer,  he  is  to 
grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  his  Lord 
and  Saviour.  It  is  true  that  no  eminent  intelli- 
gence is  necessary  to  the  beginning  of  discipleship 
in  the  school  of  Christ,  —  nothing  more  than  the 
childlike  belief  that  Christ  is  able  to  teach  and  to 
save,  and  the  humble  purpose  to  learn  of  him  and 
to  obey  him ;  but  from  that  beginning  the  disciple 
follows  on  to  know  the  Lord,  and  to  know  all 
that  God  has  revealed  to  men.  True  religion 
distinguishes  itself  from  superstition  by  its  alliance 
with  light,  and  by  its  genial  influence  on  all  the 
powers  of  thought.  It  says  to  all  who  receive  its 
lessons,  "  Be  not  children  in  understanding ;  in 
malice  be  ye  children,  but  in  understanding  be 
ye  men." 

At  present,  however,   let  us   take   this   word 


94  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

"  knowledge  "  in  a  more  limited  meaning.  The 
spontaneous  utterance  of  faith  unfolding  itself  into 
virtue  is  in  the  question  which  came  from  the 
heart  of  Saul  in  the  hour  of  his  conversion, — 
''^  Jjord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me*  to  do?"  That 
question  was  a  cry  for  knowledge,  —  "  How  can 
I  rightly  serve  thee  whom  I  have  persecuted  ? " 
The  converted  mind,  turning  to  follow  Christ  in 
newness  of  life,  longs  for  the  knowledge  of  all 
duty.  Such  is  the  knowledge  which  must  be 
added  to  virtue,  as  virtue  is  added  to  faith. 

For  the  sake  of  giving  you  a  more  definite  idea 
of  what  the  knowledge  is  without  which  con- 
scientiousness is  incomplete  and  unbalanced,  let 
me  illustrate  my  meaning  by  a  historic  instance 
from  the  New  Testament. 

One  great  error  of  Judaism,  in  the  time  of 
Christ  and  the  apostles,  was  that,  in  its  attention 
to  external  and  ceremonial  institutions,  it  had  lost 
sight  of  higher  principles,  and  had  ceased  to  honor 
with  due  regard  the  eternal  distinctions  between 
right  and  wrong.  Those  among  them  who  aspired 
to  eminent  sanctity  were  extremely  scrupulous 
about  the  payment  of  tithes  and  the  practice  of 


ENLIGHTENED  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.  95 

ceremonial  washings,  and  extremely  sensitive  to  the 
forms  of  sanctity  as  they  understood  it ;  but  withal 
they  were  prone  to  neglect  the  weightier  matters 
of  inward  purity  and  faithfulness,  and  of  spiritual 
religion.  On  the  other  hand,  one  grand  charac- 
teristic of  the  religion  tauglit  by  Christ  and  his 
apostles  was,  that  it  insisted  on  the  universal  and 
eternal  first  principle  of  holiness,  —  love  to  God 
and  love  to  man,  —  love  in  the  heart,  flowing  out 
spontaneously  into  all  outward  duties  of  morality 
and  of  piety.  All  outward  performances,  not 
springing  from  the  perception  and  recognition  of 
the  great  objects  of  faith,  were  worthless  in  the 
view  of  Christ,  and  of  the  apostles  who  spoke  In 
his  name  and  by  his  Spirit.  Yet  those  who  ac- 
cepted the  gospel,  and  trusted  in  Christ  as  the 
one  Mediator  between  God  and  men,  did  not  all 
throw  off  at  once  and  equally  their  former  habits 
of  thinking.  The  converted  Jew  was  often  prone 
to  think  that  ceremonial  observances  were  of  much 
Importance,  and  to  cramp  the  freedom  of  the  gos- 
pel with  the  fetters  of  Jewish  scrupulousness. 

Thus  it  came  to  pass,  that  wherever  there  were 
churches  consisting  partly  of  Jews  and  partly  of 


96  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

Gentiles,  the  relations  of  Christians  to  the  super- 
stitions of  the  heathen  around  them  were  compli- 
cated and  often  perplexing.  The  abhorred  idola- 
try of  the  heathen  was  not  confined  to  their  tem- 
ples, nor  to  acts  of  public  and  formal  worship,  but 
was  mingled  with  all  the  concerns  of  life.  When 
victims  were  slain  in  sacrifice  at  the  temples,  only 
a  part  of  the  flesh  was  ordinarily  consumed  on  the 
altar ;  another  portion  was  reserved  by  the  offerer 
to  be  a  feast  for  his  family  and  friends,  either  in 
the  temple  or  in  his  own  dwelling ;  and  another 
portion  became  the  perquisite  of  the  priests,  and 
was  often  sent  to  be  sold  in  the  pubhc  market. 
Thus,  and  in  many  other  ways,  the  Christian,  and 
especially  the  converted  Gentile,  was  surrounded 
by  temptations  to  some  sort  of  communion  with 
idolatry ;  and  what  he  might  do,  and  what  he 
might  not  do,  without  contracting  the  guilt  of 
idol-worship,  was  sometimes  a  perplexing  question. 
Some,  especially  those  of  Jewish  birth  and  educa- 
tion, had  a  strong  feeling,  as  if  some  moral  pollu- 
tion was  attached  to  the  very  flesh  of  an  idol 
sacrifice,  and  would  purchase  nothing  in  the  mar- 
ket, would  eat  nothing  anywhere,  without  being 


ENLIGHTENED  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.  97 

first  certified  that  it  had  no  taint  of  idolatry  about 
it.  In  this  way,  they  brought  themselves  under  a 
yoke  of  bondage.  Forgetting  that  the  earth  is  the 
Lord's  and  the  fullness  thereof,  —  forgetting  that 
it  is  not  that  which  entereth  into  a  man  that  de- 
fileth  him,  —  their  virtue,  or  strength  of  charac- 
ter and  strenuous  purpose  to  do  right,  though 
prompted  and  sustained  by  faith,  was  misdirected. 
Others  there  were  who  looked  on  the  whole  mat- 
ter in  a  different  view.  "  The  idol,"  they  said, 
"  is  notliing,  and  to  me,  therefore,  the  circum- 
stance that  this  food  which  I  find  in  the  market- 
place, or  which  is  set  before  me  at  the  table  of  a 
friend,  has  been  offered  to  an  idol,  is  of  no  conse- 
quence. I  do  not  offer  it  to  the  idol ;  and  in  eat- 
ing it,  I  give  God  thanks  and  commit  no  idolatry." 
This  difference  of  views  among  imperfectly  in- 
structed disciples  was  one  of  the  many  sources  of 
difficulty  in  the  church  at  Corinth ;  and  the  ques- 
tion was  referred  to  the  Apostle  Paul  for  his 
advice.  The  apostle  in  his  answer  [1  Cor.  viii.], 
speaks  of  "  knowledge  "  and  the  want  of  "  knowl- 
edge "  as  having  caused  the  difference.  "  We 
hnow^^  he  says,  "  that  an  idol  is  nothing  in  the 


98  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

world,  and  that  tliere  is  none  other  God  but  one," 
"  of  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  in  him ;  "  and, 
therefore,  he  whose  mind  is  completely  emanci- 
pated from  all  reverence  for  idols,  and  who  eats 
this  food  merely  as  food,  not  asking  any  questions 
as  to  whence  it  came,  and  giving  thanks  through 
Jesus  Christ  to  God  the  author  of  all  good,  is 
free  from  the  guilt  df  idolatry.  "  Howbeit,"  adds 
the  apostle,  "  there  is  not  in  every  man  that 
hnowledge ;  for  some,  with  conscience  of  the  idol 
to  this  hour,  eat  it  as  a  thing  offered  to  an  idol, 
and  their  conscience,  being  weak,  is  defiled ; " 
and,  from  that  point,  he  proceeds  to  show  that  a 
good  man's  conduct,  in  such  cases,  should  be  regu- 
lated by  a  benevolent  regard  for  the  welfare  of 
others. 

You  see,  then,  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that 
if  you  are  to  advance  in  the  moral  and  spiritual 
self-discipline  to  which  the  gospel  calls  you,  your 
believing  manliness  in  duty  must  be  enlightened 
by  knowledge.  Those  who  were  most  scrupu- 
lous, most  superstitious,  most  censorious,  in  regard 
to  the  indiscriminate  use  of  meats  sold  in  the 
markets  at  Corinth,  had  faith ;    they  believed  in 


ENLIGHTENED   CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.  99 

Christ ;  they  trusted  in  him  for  acceptance  with 
God ;  they  received  with  full  confidence  the  truth 
that  God  hath  appointed  a  day  in  which  he  will 
judge  the  world  in  righteousness.  Nor  was  their 
belief  inoperative,  for  to  faith  they  added  virtue. 
Their  faith  was  not  mere  theory  or  imagination, 
nor  mere  feeling ;  it  was  to  them  the  main  spring 
of  action.  They  combined  with  it  an  active  con- 
scientiousness. They  intended  to  do  right,  what- 
ever it  might  cost  them.  But  their  Christian 
manliness,  not  being  conjoined  with  knowledge, 
was  incomplete ;  it  was  virtue  without  guidance ; 
and,  therefore,  with  all  their  conscientiousness 
and  their  determination  to  do  right  at  all  haz- 
ards, they  erred,  and  so  erred  as  to  be  deserv- 
ing of  censure  for  the  dishonor  which  they 
brought    on    the    name   of  Christ. 

No  wonder,  then,  that  knowledge  is  so  often 
insisted  on  in  the  Scriptures  as  an  element  of 
Christian  character.  Knowledge,  wherever  it  is 
spoken  of  in  a  catalogue  of  spiritual  graces  or  of 
spiritual  gifts,  means  just  what  it  means  in  the 
instance  to  which  I  have  referred  you  for  an 
illustration ;    it    means    not    speculative    science. 


100  CHRISTIAN   SELF-CULTURE. 

natural  or  even  theological,  but  moral  discrim* 
ination.  Thus  when  the  apostle  Paul  prays  for 
the  Philipplans  that  their  love  "  may  abound  yet 
more  and  more  in  knowledge  and  in  all  judg- 
ment," it  is  that  they  "  may  approve  things  that 
are  excellent,"  that  they  "  may  be  sincere,"  (that 
is,  reproachless,  such  that  the  sun  may  shine  upon 
without  discovering  any  flaw  or  fault,)  "  and  with- 
out offense  till  the  day  of  Christ." 

You  see,  then,  already,  that  as  virtue  is  neces- 
sary to  the  completeness  of  faith,  so  knowledge, 
in  this  New  Testament  meaning  of  the  word,  is 
necessary  to  the  completeness  of  virtue.  As  faith 
is  the  first  element,  and  practical  conscientious- 
ness the  second,  so  this  knowledge  is  the  third 
element  in  a  well-proportioned  Christian  char- 
acter. It  is  distinct  from  faith  and  virtue,  inas- 
much as  in  the  analysis  of  character  it  may  be 
distinctly  contemplated,  and  a  lack  of  it  is  some- 
times manifest  where  faith  and  virtue  are  con- 
spicuous. Yet,  if  we  take  another  view,  it  is  in 
fact  inseparable  from  faith  and  virtue,  and  some- 
thing of  it  must  be  implied  in  the  very  existence 
of  true  virtue  sustained  by  Christian  faith.     Vir- 


ENLIGHTENED  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.  101 

tue,  in  the  New  Testament  meaning  of  the  word, 
is  the  manliness  of  faith,  the  soul's  activity  under 
the  dictates  and  the  impulse  of  those  moral  sen- 
sibilities which  faith  has  quickened.  Knowledge 
is  that  illumination  and  enlargement  of  mind,  that 
habit  and  disciplined  faculty  of  moral  discrimina- 
tion, which  gives  force  and  direction  to  virtue. 
Virtue  without  knowledge  is  fragmentary  ;  vir- 
tue in  its  just  combination  with  knowledge  is  a 
whole,  rounded  and  complete. 

You  understand,  then,  what  that  knowledge  is 
without  which  virtue,  or  religious  conscientious- 
ness, however  strenuous,  is  imperfect.  But  I 
would  have  you  understand  more  distinctly  what 
are  the  defects  of  that  imperfect  virtue.  I 
do  not  imply  that  such  virtue  is  only  a  formal 
morality,  for  it  is  a  virtue  in  which  faith  is  pre- 
supposed. It  is  a  living  conscientiousness,  in- 
spired and  sustained  by  the  habitual  contempla- 
tion of  things  not  seen.  It  is  an  earnest  purpose, 
inspired  and  sustained  by  the  habitual  contem- 
plation of  God  and  eternity,  of  the  soul's  infinite 
need  and  infinite  ruin,  and  of  redemption  by  the 
power  and  the  sacrifice  of  Christ.     Such  virtue, 


102  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

however  feeble,  and  however  erring,  implies  some- 
thing of  the  faculty  and  of  the  habit  of  moral 
discrimination,  some  discerning  of  things  that  are 
excellent,  some  perception  of  the  moral  relations 
and  tendencies  af  actions,  and  some  sense  of  the 
grand  principles  of  Christian  duty.  But  how 
often  do  we  actually  find  such  virtue  erring,  and 
missing  its  mark,  and  starving  itself,  and  dishon- 
oring its  own  name,  for  the  lack  of  knowledge  ? 
Conscientiousness  without  knowledge  may  be  ear- 
nest and  devout,  but  it  betrays  its  weakness ;  it 
is,  at  the  best,   a  lame  and  unfinished  virtue. 

1.  It  is  often  characterized  by  a  morbid  scru- 
pulousness. "  Tenderness  of  conscience,"  says  a 
most  acute  observer,  "  is  always  to  be  distin- 
guished from  scrupulousness.  The  conscience 
can  not  be  kept  too  sensible  and  tender ;  but 
scrupulousness  arises  from  bodily  or  mental  in- 
finnity,  and  discovers  itself  in  a  multitude  of 
ridiculous  and  superstitious  and  painful  feelings." 
Whenever  that  moral  discernment,  wdiich  the 
New  Testament  calls  knowledge,  is  wanting, 
there  virtue,  however  conscientious  and  religious, 
is   prone  to   exhaust  itself   on  little   things.      So 


ENLIGHTENED  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.  103 

much  of  its  time  and  thought  and  zeal  is  occu- 
pied with  tithing  mint,  anise,  and  cummin, — 
so  much  of  its  force  is  directed  to  the  circum- 
stances of  duty,  —  that  it  can  not  expand  into  the 
graceful  and  commanding  proportions  of  the  per- 
fect man  in  Christ  Jesus. 

2.  Virtue  without  knowledge  is  naturally  servile 
in  its  spirit.  It  walks  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter, 
and  not  in  the  newness  of  emancipated  life.  It 
brincrs  itself  under  bondao;e  to  forms,  and  acts  more 
from  the  fear  of  doing  wrong  than  from  the  fear- 
less and  joyous  consciousness  of  right.  It  lacks 
the  inspiring  sense  of  freedom.  Confounding 
duty  itself  with  the  form  or  circumstances  of 
duty,  it  moves  under  constraint,  and  can  not 
mount  up  as  with  w^ngs.  As  it  can  not  see  the 
rigiht  and  the  wrong  in  the  lio-ht  of  the  hio^hest 
and  most  comprehensive  principles,  it  naturally 
falls  back  upon  some  narrow  formula,  and  guides 
itself  by  specific  rules  blindly  applied.  It  de- 
pends upon  some  authority  which  is  not  tlie  au- 
thority of  God  himself  speaking  to  the  soul  which 
he  has  made.  It  asks  not,  simply  and  directly, 
What  is  right?  —  what  is  the  application  of  the 


104  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTUKK 

law  of  love  ?  —  what  the  spontaneous  impulse  of 
a  soul  moving  in  free  and  blessed  accordance  with 
the  mind  of  God?  —  but  what  is  it  which  the 
Church,  as  taught  by  the  fathers  or  by  councils, 
pronounces  wrong?  —  or,  what  is  it  which  this 
or  that  dictator  to  conscience  prohibits?  —  or, 
what  is  it  which  has  been  voted  into  the  cata- 
logue of  immoralities  by  this  or  that  reforming 
society  ?  —  or,  what  is  it  which  in  some  particu- 
lar clique  or  circle  is  considered  to  be  inconsist- 
ent with  relio;ion  ?  Virtue  without  knowleds!:© 
may  be  earnest  and  true,  sustained  by  an  inspir- 
ing conviction  of  the  reality  of  things  not  seen ; 
it  may  thus  have  a  zeal  which  will  compass  sea 
and  land  with  its  heroic  enterprises  ;  it  may  have 
the  sturdy  inflexibility  that  will  stand  up  against 
a  world  of  opposition,  —  that  will  not  be  daunted 
by  the  gloom  of  the  prison,  —  that  will  raise  the 
hymn  of  victory  at  the  stake  amid  the  crackling 
fagots ;  but  after  all  it  is  prone  to  be  servile. 

3.  It  follows  that  the  virtue  which  has  this 
defect  is  often,  not  to  say  always,  bigoted.  The 
man  who,  while  to  faith  he  adds  virtue,  does 
not  add  to  virtue  knowledge,  is  not  only  natu- 


ENLIGHTENED  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.  105 

rally  scrupulous  in  respect  to  his  own  actions, 
and  servile  in  the  subjection  of  his  conscience 
to  his  leader  or  his  party  or  to  his  narrow  rule, 
but  he  can  hardly  avoid  some  taint  of  bigotry 
in  his  judgment  of  those  whose  consciences  differ 
in  any  thing  from  his.  That  particular  form 
of  doing  a  thing,  those  particular  circumstances, 
just  that  drapery,  may  be,  to  such  a  man,  in  all 
his  conscientiousness,  the  very  essence  of  the  duty, 
and  the  test  by  which  he  judges  all  men.  If  he 
were  to  neglect  that  form  or  those  circumstances, 
he  would  condemn  himself  severely  ;  and  when 
he  sees  such  neglect  in  others,  he  judges  them 
with  the  same  severity.  As  he  guides  his  own 
conduct,  so  he  judges  the  conduct  of  others,  by 
forms,  by  traditions  perhaps  which  he  has  received 
from  those  around  him,  and  not  by  principles 
clearly  discerned  and  freely  applied. 

Understanding  thus  the  defects  of  virtue  with- 
out knowledge,  you  are  prepared  to  understand 
how  it  is  that  knowledge  is  the  complement  or 
completeness  of  virtue.  Think  what  that  virtue 
is  which  is  combined  with  the  faculty  and  habit 
of  moral  discrimination. 


106  CHRISTIAN"  SELF-CULTURE. 

1.  It  is  virtue  enlivened  and  invigorated  bj  an 
enlarged  acquaintance  with  the  objects  of  faith. 
There  is  a  difference  between  that  simple  con- 
viction of  the  reality  of  things  not  seeuj.  -which  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  all  Christian  character,  and 
that  clear,  discriminating,  expanded  acquaintance 
with  things  pertaining  to  God  and  salvation, 
,  which  is  acquired  in  the  progress  of  religious 
experience.  The  one  is  faith ;  the  other  is  knowl- 
edge. Some  knowledge,  —  some  idea  or  concep- 
tion of  eternal  things  as  real, — is  indispensable 
to  faith  ;  but  as  the  believing  soul  carries  out 
its  convictions,  and  translates  them  into  action, 
and  thus  follows  on  to  know  the  Lord,  —  as,  in 
a  devout  and  obedient  attention  to  God's  word, 
it  walks  with  God,  and  holds  communion  with 
infinite  purity,  —  that  soul  grows  not  only  in 
gracious  affection  but  in  the  knowledge  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  course 
in  the  knowledge  of  all  that  concerns  his  dignity, 
his  office,  and  the  salvation  he  accomplishes. 
Thus  as  virtue  springs  from  faith,  and  is  nour- 
ished by  it,  so  faith  and  virtue  furnish  the  soul 
witli  knowledge ;  and  the  more  familiarly  a  truly 


ENLIGHTENED  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.  107 

Christian  man  is  acquainted  with  Christianity 
as  a  whole,  and  in  all  its  parts,  —  with  God  in 
his  revealed  majesty  and  holiness,  —  with  Christ 
in  the  glory  which  he  had  with  the  Father  be- 
fore the  world  was,  and  in  the  glory  of  his  hu- 
miliation and  death  as  a  partaker  of  our  nature, 
—  the  more  will  his  resolute  purpose  to  do  right 
be  instructed  and  strengthened.  The  virtue 
which  has  ripened  into  knowledge  is  an  earnest 
conscientiousness,  strengthened  and  cheered  by 
familiar  acquaintance  with  things  not  seen. 

2.  It  is  more  than  this.  It  is  virtue  enlight- 
ened and  free.  It  is  the  virtue  or  manliness 
of  a  mind  accustomed  to  regard  the  principles 
of  duty  and  the  relations  and  tendencies  of  ac- 
tions. There  may  be  a  true  conscientiousness, 
resolute  and  strenuous,  that  moves  in  bondage 
to  rules  inadequately  comprehended  by  the  mind, 
and  applied  without  just  discrimination.  But  as 
the  disciple  whose  faith  inspires  and  sustains  his 
manly  purpose  of  well-doing  advances  in  Chris- 
tian knowledge,  he  becomes  familiar,  not  with 
rules  alone,  but  with  grand  principles  of  duty. 
He  sees  everywhere,  in  whatever  work  or  duty, 


108  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

the  application  of  that  paramount  law,  —  the  law 
of  love  to  God  and  to  man,  —  the  law  of  doing 
good,  always  and  everywhere,  for  time  and  for 
eternity,  in  communion  with  the  God  of  love. 
The  more  familiar  he  becomes  with  this  first 
principle  of  all  duty,  and  with  its  leading  appli- 
cations, the  more  accustomed  he  is  to  see,  in 
every  particular  rule  of  right,  the  sanctity  and 
beauty  of  this  universal  law ;  the  more  sponta- 
neously will  his  sense  of  right  distinguish  the 
things  that  are  excellent ;  and  the  more  effec- 
tually will  he  be  brought  into  the  illuminated 
freedom  of  those  whose  inmost  life  is  holiness 
and  love. 

"  Giving  all  diligence,  add  to  your  faith  vir- 
tue, and  to  virtue  knowledge."  Remember  this. 
Knowledge,  the  completeness  of  virtue,  is  to  be 
attained  bv  diligence.  Remember  that  the  dis- 
ciple  must  give  all  diligence  if  he  would  build 
up,  on  the  basis  of  his  faith,  a  true  and  manly 
character.  Remember  that,  in  order  to  the  com- 
pleteness of  virtue  and  of  the  soul's  conformity 
to  Christ,  there  must  be  a  steady,  earnest,  per- 
severing  self-discipline.     And  is  not   the  attain- 


ENLIGHTENED  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.  109 

ment  worth  the  effort  ?  Think  not  that  the  at- 
tainment is  too  high  for  you.  Remember  those 
exceeding  great  and  precious  promises  whereby 
you  may  escape  the  corruption  that  is  in  the 
world,  and  become  partaker  of  a  divine  nature. 
Remember  that  those  promises  avail  not  for  the 
indifferent  and  the  slothful,  but  for  those  who 
give  all  diligence  that  they  may  add  to  their 
faith  virtue,  and  to  virtue  knowledge. 


CHAPTER  YI. 


FREEDOM    SELF-GOVERNED. 


"  But  take  heed  lest  by  any  means  this  liberty  of  yours  be- 
come a  stumbling-block  to  them  that  are  weak.  For  if  any 
man  see  thee,  who  hast  knowledge,  sit  at  meat  in  the  idol's 
temple,  shall  not  the  conscience  of  him  who  is  weak  be  em- 
boldened to  eat  those  things  which  are  offered  to  idols ;  and 
through  thy  knowledge  shall  the  weak  brother  perish  for  whom 
Christ  died  'i  "    1  Cor.  viii.  9-11. 

"  You  know  that  in  the  races  of  the  stadium,  though  all  may 
run,  yet  but  one  can  gain  the  prize ;  —  (so  run  that  you  may  win.) 
And  every  man  who  strives  in  the  matches,  trains  himself  by 
all  manner  of  self-restraint ;  yet  they  do  it  to  win  a  crown  of 
fading  leaves,  —  we  a  crown  that  can  not  fade.  I,  therefore, 
run  not  like  the  racer  who  is  uncertain  of  his  goal ;  I  fight,  not 
as  the  pugilist  who  strikes  out  into  the  air ;  but  I  bring  my 
body  into  bondage,  crushing  it  with  heavy  blows,  lest,  per- 
chance, having  called  others  to  the  contest,  I  should  myself 
fail  shamefully  of  the  prize."  1  Cor.  ix.  24-27.  Conybeare's 
version. 

"  Moreover,  brethren,  I  would  not  that  ye  should  be  ignorant 
how  that  aU  our  fathers  were  under  the  cloud,  and  all  passed 
through  the  sea.  .  .  .  But  with  many  of  them  God  was 
not  well  pleased ;  for  they  were  overthrown  in  the  wilder- 
ness. Now  these  things  were  our  examples,  to  the  intent  we 
should  not  lust  after  evil  things  as  they  also  lusted.  .  .  . 
Wherefore  let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed  lest  he 
fall.  .  .  .  All  things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  all  things  are 
not  expedient :  all  things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  all  things  edify 
not."     1  Cor.  X.  1,  5,  6,  12,  23. 

"  Giving  all  diligence  add  ...  to  knowledge  temperance.'"' 
2  Pet.  i.  5,  6. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FREEDOM    SELF-GOVERNED. 

One-sidedness.  Two  sorts  of  one-sided  men  at  Corinth. 
Knowledge  without  temperance  tends  to  sensual  indulgence,  — 
to  contempt  of  the  weak,  —  to  lax  opinions  terminating  in 
apostasy.  Knowledge  developed  into  temperance  —  puts  the 
disciple  on  his  guard  against  all  self-indulgence, — makes  him 
humble  and  gentle,  —  trains  his  inclinations  and  emotions  into 
harmony  with  duty.     How  to  acquire  a  Christian  self-control. 

There  is  great  need  of  watching  against  one- 
sidedness  in  the  formation  and  growth  of  rehgious 
character.  Faith  is  the  basis  of  all  religion ;  and 
faith  in  Christ,  or  a  simple  reliance  on  hnn  as  the 
only  sacrifice  for  sin,  and  a  simple  confidence  in 
his  promises  of  free  and  full  salvation,  is  what 
makes  a  Christian.  It  is  here  that  you  are  to 
begin.  You  are  to  receive  Christ  and  justification 
before  God  by  faith  ;  you  are  to  live  by  faith  ;  you 
are  to  walk  by  faith  ;  and  your  faith  is  to  save 
you.      But,    as   "  James,   the   servant   of  God," 


114  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

assures  you,  "  faith  without  works  is  dead."  The 
faith  which  does  not  quicken  the  conscience,  and 
strengthen  the  soul  in  all  well-doing,  is  worthless. 
Faith,  then,  or  confidence  in  the  gospel,  must  be 
completed  and  balanced  by  what  the  Apostle  Peter 
calls  "  virtue,"  or  the  strenuous  purpose  to  perform 
all  duty ;  for  otherwise  it  is  one-sided  and  mon- 
strous, —  a  mere  perversion  of  faith  rather  than  faith 
itself.  In  like  manner  that  resolute  conscientious- 
ness —  as  I  have  already  shown  you  —  needs  the 
guidance  and  strength,  and  the  enlargement  and 
freedom,  which  come  from  knowledge ;  or  it  is  in 
danger  of  becoming  a  servile  and  timid  scrupu- 
lousness or  a  narrow  and  contentious  bigotry. 

I  am  now  to  warn  you  against  one-sidedness  in 
another  direction.  Even  when  we  add  to  faith 
virtue,  and  to  virtue  knowledge,  we  have  not  yet 
formed  the  perfect  man  in  Jesus  Christ.  We  have, 
indeed,  guarded  the  conscientious  purpose  to  do 
right  against  the  danger  of  becoming  bigoted  and 
timorous.  We  have  released  it  from  the  bondage 
of  mere  forms  and  mechanical  rules,  and  have 
brought  it  forth  to  breathe  the  invigorating  air  and 
move  in  the  cheering  light  of  Christian  freedom. 


FREEDOM  SELF-GOVERNED.  115 

But  just  at  this  point  the  beHever  seeking  to  form 
his  soul  by  grace  into  the  image  of  Christ  needs 
another  caution.     He  must  add 

"  TO    KNOWLEDGE    TEMPERANCE.'* 

Let  your  mind  again  revert  to  those  circum- 
stances in  the  early  history  of  the  gospel,  and 
especially  of  the  Corinthian  church,  from  which 
we  have  already  derived  an  illustration  of  the 
necessity  of  knowledge  to  guide  and  strengthen 
virtue.  Those  believers  at  Corinth  whose  zeal 
against  idolatry,  and  whose  dread  of  the  moral  pol- 
lution inseparable  from  it,  would  not  let  them  pur- 
chase what  was  offered  in  the  market,  or  eat  what 
was  set  before  them  at  the  table  of  a  friend,  unless 
they  could  first  obtain  positive  evidence  that  it 
had  no  taint  of  idolatry  about  it,  had  added  virtue 
to  their  faith.  They  had  conjoined  with  their 
confidence  in  Christ  an  earnest  purpose  to  do 
right.  The  practical  error  into  which  they  fell 
was  the  error  of  strenuous  virtue  not  rightly  di- 
rected. It  was  the  error  of  that  conscientiousness 
which  lacks  the  guidance  of  knowledge.  Others 
there  were  in  Corinth  who  had  the  knowledge  in 


116  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

which  those  over-scrupulous  brethren  were  de- 
ficient; but  for  that  very  reason,  they,  on  their 
part,  needed  to  be  put  upon  their  guard  against  an 
opposite  danger.  They  saw  and  understood  that 
an  idol  is  nothing  in  the  world.  They  knew  that 
it  was  only  by  the  consent  and  act  of  the  mind 
that  the  guilt  of  idol-worship  could  be  contracted. 
Thus  they  were  free  from  the  bondage  of  a  morbid 
scrupulousness.  Whatever  was  set  before  them 
—  whatever  was  sold  in  the  market  —  they  could 
freely  eat,  asking  no  questions  for  conscience'  sake, 
and  offering  thanks  to  God  the  giver.  They  added 
to  their  virtue  knowledge.  But  they  were  not, 
therefore,  free  from  danger  even  in  that  matter  of 
things  offered  to  idols.  On  the  contrary,  their 
strong  sense  of  the  freedom  of  the  gospel  —  that 
very  elevation  of  their  minds  above  mere  forms 
and  outward  rules  —  involved  some  special  perils. 
Let  us  see  what  those  perils  were,  and  what  they 
must  be  in  all  similar  cases. 

1.  The  man  of  knowledge,  in  the  sense  in  which 
knowledge  is  now  spoken  of,  is  in  danger  from 
temptations  to  sensual  indulgence.  He  knows  that 
*'  it  is  not  that  which  goeth  into  the  mouth  that 


FREEDOM  SELF-GOVERNED.  117 

defileth  a  man."  He  knows  that  in  mere  ab- 
stinence from  this  or  that  particular  kind  of  food, 
in  merely  denying  a  natural  and  healthy  appetite 
or  taste,  in  mere  fastings  and  vigils,  or  in  any  other 
self-imposed  privation  or  infliction,  there  is  no 
righteousness  nor  any  thing  that  can  commend  the 
ascetic  to  God.  He  knows  that  "  every  creature  of 
God  is  good,  and  to  be  received  with  thankfulness." 
He  is  emancipated  from  the  narrow  scruples  by 
which  some  men  are  fettered.  He  has  overcome 
the  slavish  spirit  of  subjection  to  dead  forms.  The 
gospel  is  to  him  a  law  of  liberty.  On  this  side, 
then,  —  even  in  the  direction  of  that  knowledge 
which  emancipates  him,  and  of  that  enlargement 
and  elevation  of  mind  which  rises  above  little 
scruples  and  looks  exclusively  to  great  principles, 
—  in  just  this  quarter,  he  is  exposed  to  danger 
from  the  temptations  which  address  themselves  to 
his  inferior  nature.  He  is  in  danger  of  falling 
into  practices  and  habits,  which  will  be  more  per- 
nicious to  his  soul  than  all  the  over-scrupulousness 
of  an  unenlio-htened  conscience. 

It  seems  to  have  been  so  with  some  at  Corinth. 
The    apostle   Paul,   in   his   first    epistle    to   that 


118  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

cliurcli,  found  it  necessary  to  caution  them  in  this 
particular.  He  warned  them  against  "  lusting 
after  evil  things,"  (x.  6,)  and  most  earnestly  put 
them  on  their  P-uard  against  drunkenness  and  other 
gross  sensualities,  (vi.  9-20,)  in  comparison  with 
which  the  most  timid  and  bigoted  scrupulousness 
would  be  only  a  trifling  error.  You  may  pity  the 
man  who  is  afraid  to  taste  even  of  the  sacramental 
cup  lest  it  should  happen  to  contain  something  fer- 
mented. No  doubt  the  addition  of  more  knowl- 
edge to  his  virtue  w^ould  be  a  great  improvement 
in  his  religious  character.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  man  who,  having  added  to  his  virtue 
knowledge,  rises  far  above  all  scruples  about  self- 
indulgence, —  that  man  who,  having  learned  that 
"  Christianity  is  neither  ascetic  nor  fanatic,"  puts 
the  sparkling  wine  freely  and  daily  to  his  lips,  and 
becomes  discriminating  and  learned  in  the  science 
of  good  eating  and  good  drinking,  and  feels  that  to 
lose  any  thing  of  the  daily  indulgence  of  his  cul- 
tivated and  fastidious  appetite  is  a  serious  encroach- 
ment on  his  happiness,  —  that  man  needs  some- 
thing else,  far  more  than  the  most  timid  slave  of 
petty   scruples   needs   knowledge.     While    he    is 


FREEDOM  SELF-GOVERNED.  119 

rejoicing  in  his  freedom  from  a  scruple,  he  is  be- 
coming the  slave  of  a  lust,  —  bound  and  led  captive 
by  habits  of  sensual  indulgence.  There  are  men 
who  abstain  from  the  use  of  sugar,  and  wear  no 
cotton  in  their  clothing,  lest  they  be  compromised 
with  the  guilt  of  slavery.  There  are  men  to 
whose  sensitive  conscience  the  odor  of  burning 
tobacco  is  as  offensive  as  it  is  to  unsophisticated 
human  nostrils.  We  may  be  sorry  for  the  weak- 
ness of  their  consciences,  —  especially  if  they  insist 
that  their  scruples  shall  be  a  rule  by  which  to  pro- 
nounce on  other  men's  religious  sincerity.  But, 
after  all,  dare  w^e  say  that  those  men,  or  any  others 
equally  scrupulous  in  other  and  similar  matters, 
need  the  emancipating  and  liberalizing  influence 
of  knowledge  more  than  he  who  is  enslaved  to  the 
continual  use  of  tobacco  and  can  not  be  persuaded 
to  throw  off  his  fetters  needs  something  better  than 
mere  knowledge  ?  The  slave  of  a  scrupulous  con- 
science, much  as  he  needs  to  add  to  his  virtue 
knowledge,  holds  a  position  of  moral  dignity  when 
compared  with  one  who,  rejoicing  in  the  freedom 
which  his  knowledge  gives  him,  is  enslaved  by  a 
factitious  appetite  for  a  vile  and  filthy  drug. 


120  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

This,  tlien,  is  the  first  danger  which  besets  the 
man  of  knowledge,  rising  above  petty  scruples. 
He  is  in  danger  on  the  side  of  self-indulgence. 
At  the  same  time,  — 

2.  He  is  also  in  danger  of  acquiring  a  contempt- 
uous feeling  toward  those  whose  consciences  are 
more  timid  and  sensitive  than  his  own.  His 
knowledge  shows  him  the  weakness  of  other  men's 
scruples ;  and  he  is  likely  to  have  little  sympathy 
with  them  on  some  points,  at  least,  on  which  their 
conscientious  feelings  are  deep  and  strong.  While 
he  seems  to  them  to  be  wanting  in  virtue,  or  the 
will  to  do  right,  they  seem  to  him  to  be  deficient 
in  common  sense  ;  and  while  they,  perhaps,  censure 
him  in  their  bigotry,  he,  in  his  pride,  with  knowl- 
edge that  "pufFeth  up,"  despises  them. 

Such  seem  to  have  been  the  reciprocal  feelings 
of  parties  in  the  Corinthian  church.  While  those 
who  fell  into  the  error  of  excessive  sciiipulousness, 
in  regard  to  things  offered  to  idols,  could  hardly 
avoid  condemning  others  for  what  seemed  to  them 
a  participation  in  the  guilt  of  idolatry,  some,  on 
the  other  hand,  of  those  whose  knowledge  emanci- 
pated them  from  all  superstitious  regard  for  the 


FREEDOM  SELF-GOVERNED,  121 

idol,  and  who  felt  that  they  could  eat  of  any  thing, 
any  where,  in  the  spirit  of  thankfulness  to  the  liv- 
ing and  true  God,  were  proud  of  their  knowl- 
edge, and  despised  the  weakness  of  their  brethren. 
As  to  the  effect  of  their  conduct  on  other  people, 

—  what  was  that  to  them  ?  "  Why,"  said  they, 
"  is  my  liberty  judged  of  another  man's  con- 
science ?  "  They  felt  that  they  could  eat,  even  in 
an  idol's  temple,  without  any  inw^ard  homage  to 
the  idol ;  and  as  long  as  they  kept  their  own 
conscience  pure,  they  esteemed  it  of  little  conse- 
quence what  effect  their  conduct  might  produce  on 
the  w^eak  minds  of  others.  In  reference  to  such 
results,  the  apostle  said,  "  Knowledge  puffeth  up," 

—  that  is,  inflates  the  mind  with  pride,  —  "  but 
love  edifieth.  And  if  any  man  think  that  he 
knoweth  any  thing,"  —  that  is,  if  he  values  him- 
self upon  his  knowledge,  —  "  he  knoweth  nothing 
yet  as  he  ought  to  know."  Knowledge  that  has 
this  effect  is  all  in  vain.  Alas  for  that  man  whose 
supposed  enlargement  and  elevation  of  views  has 
broken  the  chain  of  sympathy  between  him  and 
those  whom  he  regards  as  his  w^eaker  brethren  ! 

3.  It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  this  man  of 


122  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

knowledge  is  in  danger  of  adopting  lax  opinions  In 
regard  to  duty,  and  thus  gradually  blunting  and 
benumbing  his  moral  sensibilities  till  he  becomes 
an  apostate.  He  thinks  much  of  his  Christian 
liberty,  his  superiority  to  merely  outward  rules, 
his  illumination  and  guidance  by  great  principles 
living  within  him.  To  him  —  if  the  heart  is 
right,  —  that  is,  if  the  disposition  and  ultimate  aim 
of  the  mind  are  right  —  the  particulars  of  outward 
conduct  seem  to  be  of  little  consequence.  His 
religion,  he  says,  is  of  the  heart  and  spirit ;  it 
does  not  consist  in  conformino;  to  the  customs  or 
the  prejudices  of  other  religious  people,  —  in  wear- 
ing a  particular  style  of  dress  or  a  particular  cast 
of  countenance,  —  in  avoiding  particular  sorts  of 
company  or  particular  amusements,  —  in  going  to 
prayer-meetings,  —  no,  nor  in  any  special  times  or 
rules  of  private  prayer.  Surely  there  is  danger  for 
him.  Surelv  he  needs  somethins:  for  ballast  to  his 
knowledo-e.  The  danger  is  that  his  reliorion  will  be 
a  mere  ethereal  essence  which  evaporates  and  is 
gone.  The  danger  is  that,  in  his  self-reliance  and 
his  freedom  from  prejudices,  he  will  throw  himself 
into  one  temptation   and  another,  — will   be  con- 


FREEDOM  SELF-GOVERNED.  123 

formed  to  tliis  world  in  one  particular  and  another, 
—  will  fall  into  one  worldly  folly  and  another,  — 
till  his  devotional  habits  and  feelings  are  entirely 
gone,  —  till  his  sympathies  with  Christ  and  with 
Christ's  work  in  the  world,  and  the  communion  of 
his  heart  with  the  people  of  God,  are  broken,  — 
till  his  conscience,  sophisticated  and  blinded  by 
false  reasonings,  is  seared,  —  till  he  becomes  at 
last  an  apostate  from  the  gospel.  How  many  in- 
stances have  there  been  of  such  backsliding  and 
ultimate  apostasy,  which  began  in  petty  self-in- 
dulgences and  the  contempt  of  petty  scruples  ! 

On  this  part  of  the  subject,  the  Apostle  Paul 
warns  his  Corinthian  friends  most  distinctly  and 
impressively.  He  warns  those  who,  with  an  un- 
due reliance  upon  their  knowledge  and  upon  the 
consciousness  of  a  right  intention,  were  not  afraid 
to  sit  down  at  an  idolatrous  feast,  or  even  in  the 
idol's  temple.  He  warns  them  by  the  example 
of  those  Israelites  who,  in  the  journeying  under 
Moses  through  the  desert,  were  tempted  into 
intercourse  and  conformity  with  idolaters.  "  All 
these  things,"  he  says,  "  happened  to  them  for 
ensamples,  and  they  are  written  for  our  admoni- 


124  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

tion,  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are  come. 
Wherefore  let  him  who  thinketh  he  standeth,  take 
heed  lest  he  fall." 

These  are  some  of  the  dangers  which  beset  the 
man  of  knowledo;e,  as  the  word  knowledo-e  is  here 
used,  —  the  man  whose  enlarged  views  of  moral 
questions  have  freed  him  from  the  power  of  super- 
stitious or  unenlightened  scruples.  To  guard  him 
against  such  dangers,  he  needs  something  else, — 
somethino;  without  which  knowledo;e  is  unbal- 
anced,  —  something  without  which  his  knowledge, 
in  its  highest  attainments,  is  incomplete.  That 
somethino;  else  is  Christian  self-control.  He  must 
add  to  knowledge  temperance. 

What,  then,  do  I  mean  by  temperance?  Of 
course,  we  need  not  take  the  word  in  any  techni- 
cal or  narrow  sense.  Temperance,  as  a  Christian 
grace,  is  not  the  mere  opposite  of  drunkenness. 
It  is  not  mere  abstinence  from  intoxicating  drinks 
and  drugs.  It  is  not  merely  a  wise  and  health- 
preserving  moderation  in  the  use  of  food  and 
drink.  The  word  has  a  broader  and  higher  mean- 
ing. Temperance,  in  the  Christian  sense,  is  the 
habitual  and  manful  struggle  of  the  soul  against 


FREEDOM   SELF-GOVERNED.  125 

inferior  and  sensual  appetites.  It  is  the  purpose 
and  habit  of  striving  to  subdue  the  passions.  It  is 
the  quickened  spirit's  watching,  toil,  and  strife  to 
keep  the  body  in  due  subjection,  and  to  conquer 
the  propensities  that  war  against  the  soul.  This, 
as  we  see  at  once,  is  a  very  different  thing  from 
oriental,  Jewish,  or  monkish  asceticism,  and  from 
the  scrupulousness  which  ascetic  notions  generate. 
It  does  not  regard  the  infliction  of  bodily  penances 
as  meritorious  or  holy,  or  as  the  condition  or 
method  of  acceptance  with  God.  It  only  sets  it- 
self in  watchfulness  and  conflict  against  those 
temptations  which  assail  the  soul,  and  seek  to 
bring  it  into  subjection  to  sin,  through  the  appe- 
tites and  propensities  of  the  inferior  nature. 
Christian  temperance  is  self-control,  inspired  by 
faith,  animated  by  manly  conscientiousness,  and 
guided  by  knowledge. 

Let  us,  then,  call  up  before  our  thoughts,  and 
portray  to  ourselves  if  we  can,  the  man  who, 
liaving  added  virtue  to  faith  and  knowledge  to 
virtue,  adds  to  knowledge  temperance.  Look  at 
him  under  the  influence  of  this  disposition  or 
habit,  and  see  how  he  is  guarded  against  the  perils 


126  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

which  beset   the   man  to  whose  knowledge  tem- 
perance is  not  added. 

1.  The  first  element  in  the  idea  of  this  tem- 
perance is  that  it  puts  the  man  on  his  guard 
against  all  the  forms  of  self-indulgence.  He  feels, 
not  blindly  and  superstitiously,  but  intelligently, 
that  the  indulgence  of  any  appetite,  in  such  a  way 
or  to  such  an  extent  as  to  bring  him  under  its 
])ower,  is  full  of  peril  to  his  souFs  prosperity. 
He  is  therefore  fixed  upon  securing,  by  the  help 
of  Christ,  the  just  dominion  of  his  spiritual  nature 
over  all  inferior  desires.  His  body,  with  its 
organs,  senses,  and  appetites,  is  to  him  his  vehicle, 
his  instrument,  his  temporary  tenement,  not  him- 
self; and  it  is  a  great  and  constant  care  with 
him  not  to  be  degraded  or  fettered  by  it.  The 
ascetic  or  the  mystic  —  for  asceticism  and  mysti- 
cism are  ordinarily  related  to  each  other — regards 
the  body  as  a  clog,  a  burden,  a  prison,  an  enemy. 
His  theory,  with  the  practice  founded  on  it,  puts 
dishonor  on  his  Maker,  and  cuts  him  off  fi'om  the 
sources  of  spiiitual  strength.  But  the  believer, 
adding  to  knowledge  temperance,  regards  the 
complex  constitution  of  his  mortal  existence,  and 


FREEDOM   SELF-GOVERNED.  127 

all  the  circumstances  of  his  probation^  as  arranged 
in  the  wisdom  and  the  love  of  God.  He  is  in  the 
body  not  for  the  sake  of  penance  and  suffering, 
but  that  in  the  body  he  may  serve  his  Maker ; 
tliat  through  these  senses  he  may  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  outward  and  material  creation  ; 
that  by  these  organs  he  may  come  into  active 
communication  with  the  world  in  which  God  has 
placed  him,  and  in  which  he  has  a  work  to  do  for 
God ;  and  that,  by  the  discipline  of  temptation 
and  of  suffering,  which  the  conditions  of  this  life 
involve,  he  may  be  trained  for  a  better  life  to 
come.  Thus  he  puts  himself  intelligently  on  his 
guard,  lest,  by  the  temptations  incident  to  his  resi- 
dence in  the  body,  his  soul  be  brought  into  bond- 
age, 

2.  As  he  thus  adds  to  knowledge  temperance, 
he  grows  in  liumility  and  gentleness.  Habitually 
watchful,  he  becomes  habitually  aware  of  his  own 
weakness,  his  dangers,  and  his  unworthiness.  He 
may  understand,  he  may  pity,  his  brother's  undis- 
criminating  and  unguided  scrupulousness ;  but  he 
does  not  therefore  despise  that  brother,  nor  with- 
hold from  him  a  brother's   sympathy.     That  his 


128  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

brother  is  afraid  of  the  very  food  which  idolatrons 
priests  have  handled,  —  that  his  brother,  unable 
to  distinguish  the  circumstances  of  an  evil  thing 
from  the  thing  itself,  hates  even  "  the  garment 
spotted  by  the  flesh,"  and  runs  into  weak  ex- 
cesses of  conscientious  antipathy,  —  does  not  seem 
to  him  so  unreasonable,  nor  is  it  so  offensive  to 
his  feelings,  as  the  proud  and  self-conceited  fool- 
hardiness  that  rushes  into  perilous  temptations 
without  fear.  Thus  his  knowledge,  completed 
and  balanced  by  temperance,  instead  of  puffing 
him  up  and  separating  him  from  a  salutary  sym- 
pathy with  less  enlightened  brethren,  makes  him 
more  and  more  helpful  to  them.  Not  having 
lost  his  sympathy  with  them,  he  does  not  lose 
their  confidence,  and  therefore  he  does  not  lose 
the  natural  and  unresisted  influence  over  them 
which  knowledge  ought  to  give  him.  His  knowl- 
edge becomes,  in  a  sense,  available  for  their  use. 
His  intelligent  habit  of  moral  discrimination  helps 
to  guide  them. 

3.  In  proportion  to  his  proficiency  in  the  habit 
of  watchful  self-restraint,  his  inclinations  and  im- 
pulses, instead  of  controlling  his  judgment  of  what 


FREEDOM  SELF-GOVERNED.  129 

is  duty,  and  thus  blinding  his  conscience,  become 
themselves  subject  to  the  rule  of  truth  and  the 
sense  of  obligation.  Such  is  the  constitution  of 
our  nature,  that  when  the  passions  are  held  in 
subjection  to  reason  and  to  faith,  they  gradually 
learn  to  bear  the  yoke  without  resistance.  At 
first,  there  may  be  many  a  conflict  between  the 
holy  purpose  of  self-denial  and  the  untamed  pas- 
sion excited  by  temptation  and  struggling  for  the 
mastery  over  conscience.  But  each  victory  over 
temptation  weakens  the  enemy  within ;  each  effect- 
ual curbing  of  wayward  and  groveling  inclina- 
tions gives  the  man  more  power  of  self-control ; 
his  nature,  perverted,  corrupted,  and  in  a  sense 
deranged  and  disorganized  by  sin,  recovers  more 
and  more  of  the  just  balance  of  its  power  ;  he 
approaches  ever  nearer  to  a  full  experience  of  that 
apostolic  benediction,  —  "The  very  God  of  peace 
sanctify  you  wholly  ;  and  your  whole  spirit  and 
soul  and  body  be  preserved  blameless  to  the 
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

This  Christian  temperance  —  this  holy  and 
vigilant  self-restraint  —  is  what  the  apostle  Paul 
commends,  most  seriously,  to  those  knowing  ones 


130  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

at  Corinth,  whose  knowledge  had  inflated  them 
and  led  them  into  fearful  perils.  "  Know  ye  not 
that  they  who  run  in  a  race,  run  all,  but  one  re- 
ceiveth  the  prize.  So  run  that  ye  may  obtain. 
And  every  man  that  striveth  for  the  mastery  in 
the  public  games  is  temperate  in  all  things.  Now 
they  do  it  to  obtain  a  fading  crown,  but  we  an 
unfading.  I  therefore  so  run,  not  as  uncertainly ; 
so  fight  I  not  as  one  that  beateth  the  air ;  but  I 
keep  my  body  under,  and  bring  it  unto  subjection, 
lest  that,  by  any  means,  when  I  have  preached 
to  others,  I  myself  should  be  a  castaway."  Such 
is  Paul's  commentary  on  adding  to  knowledge 
temperance. 

Let  me  now  give  you  a  few  brief  rules  that 
may  help  you  in  your  endeavor  to  cultivate  this 
habit  of  Christian  self-control. 

I.  Fill  your  mind  with  just  views  of  the  dignity 
of  your  nature  as  created  in  God's  image,  and  of 
the  grandeur  of  your  destiny  as  made  for  immor- 
tality. Be  always  conscious  of  what  you  are  and 
what  you  were  made  for. 

II.  Be  watchful  against  occasional  temptations 
and  against  the  formation  of  self-indulgent  habits. 


FREEDOM  SELF-GOVERNED.  131 

Occasional  temptations  carry  away  the  unwatch- 
ful  and  therefore  unguarded  soul ;  and  as  they 
come,  one  after  another,  they  bind  that  soul,  ere 
it  is  aware,  as  with  a  chain  of  iron.  Be  watchful. 
Have  you  any  self-indulgent  practice  or  habit 
which  it  would  be  better  for  you  to  renounce? 
Have  you  any  circle  of  companions  whose  ex- 
ample and  whose  society  tempts  you  to  self-indul- 
gence? When  I  see  a  young  man  undertaking 
to  be  a  Christian,  and  yet  spending  annually  a 
larger  amount  in  cigars  than  he  can  afford  to 
give  away,  I  am  afraid  for  him. 

III.  Embrace  such  opportunities  of  self-denial 
as  God  gives  you.  Opportunities  of  self-denial 
are  to  be  found,  not  made.  You  have  no  need 
to  go  out  of  the  world  into  a  desert  or  a  cell,  in 
order  to  deny  yourself.  God  will  take  care  that 
your  moral  nature  suffers  no  harm  for  want  of 
opportunities  to  deny  yourself,  and  to  bring  your 
impulsive  and  wayward  passions  into  subjection. 

IV.  Keep  the  end  of  life  in  view,  and  the  end 
of  all  things.  This  will  help  you  in  your  watch- 
fulness. This  will  stimulate  you  to  seize  upon 
every  legitimate  opportunity  of  self-denial.     This 


132  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTUEE. 

will  quicken  your  consciousness  of  what  you  are 
and  what  you  are  made  for.  To  remember  that 
your  life  is  only  a  vapor,  and  that  the  visible 
world  itself  is  passing  away  like  a  shadow,  will 
take  away  the  glare  and  show  of  the  things  that 
deceive  you,  —  will  help  you  to  see  things  as  they 
are,  and  to  walk  as  in  the  light  of  an  opening 
eternity. 


CHAPTER  yn. 


STEADFASTNESS 


"  He  that  endureth  to  the  end  shall  be  saved."    Matt.  x.  22. 

"In  your  patience  possess  ye  your  souls."    Luke  xxi.  19. 

"  Tribulation  worketh  patience  ;  and  patience,  experience." 
Rom.  V.  3,  4. 

"  Strengthened  with  all  might,  according  to  his  glorious 
power,  unto  all  patience."     Col.  i.  11. 

"  Not  slothful,  but  followers  of  them  who  through  faith  and 
patience  inherit  the  promises."     Heb.  vi.  12. 

"  Cast  not  away  therefore  your  confidence  which  hath  great 
recompense  of  reward.  For  ye  have  need  of  patience,  that 
after  ye  have  done  the  will  of  God,  ye  may  receive  the  prom- 
ise."   Heb.  X.  35,  36. 

"  Let  us  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us." 
Heb.  xii.  1. 

"Giving  all  diligence  —  add  to  temperance,  patience."  2 
Pet.  i.  5,  6. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

STEADFASTNESS. 

Reading  the  Bible.  Understandest  thou  what  thou  readest  1 
The  word  "  patience  "  in  the  New  Testament.  Steadfastness  a 
distinct  element  of  Christian  character.  How  it  may  be  attained : 
1.  As  the  legitimate  result  of  faith,  virtue,  knowledge,  and  self- 
control;  2.  By  watching  against  temptations  to  instability; 
3.  By  habitually  regarding  the  things  which  are  not  seen. 

I  CAN  not  undertake  to  lead  you  and  help  you 
in  the  endeavor  to  attain  the  completeness  and 
symmetry  of  a  truly  Christian  character,  unless  I 
may  assume  that  you  are  carefully  and  teachahly 
reading  the  Bible.  Such  reading  of  the  Bible, 
more  than  any  thing  else,  brings  you  into  com- 
munication with  the  mind  of  Christ,  and  with  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Yet,  in  your  read- 
ing of  the  Bible,  you  may  often  feel  the  need  of 
some  friendh^  guidance  and  explanation.  It  will 
not  be  strange,  if  sometimes  you  find  yourself  in 
sympathy  with  the  Ethiopian  courtier,  who,  when 
Philip  asked  him,  "  Understandest  thou  what  thou 


136  '       CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

readest  ?  "  replied,  "  How  can  I,  except  some  man 
should  guide  me  ?  " 

For  example,  in  your  reading  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, you  find  that  "  patience  "  is  frequently  spok- 
en of  as  something  essential  to  the  formation  of  a 
Christian  character  and  the  progress  of  a  Chris- 
tian life.  What  is  the  meaning  of  that  word 
"  patience,"  when  it  is  thus  used  in  the  New 
Testament  ?  If  I  can  help  you  to  a  clearer  un- 
derstanding of  that  word,  as  it  meets  you  so  often 
in  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  perhaps  I  may  bring 
your  mind  into  a  closer  contact  with  the  mind  of 
Christ  and  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit. 

Let  me  say,  then,  that  there  are  two  words 
in  the  New  Testament  which  are  sometimes  trans- 
lated patience.  One  of  those  two  words  signifies 
slowness  to  anger,  —  indisposition  to  sudden  re- 
sentment or  complaint ;  and  this  is  very  nearly 
what  we  call  patience,  in  our  ordinary  use  of  the 
word.  The  other  —  which  is  much  more  fre- 
quently used  in  describing  the  Christian  character 
and  life  —  signifies  rather  what  we  mean  by  such 
expressions  as  "  continuing,"  "  holding  out," 
"enduring,"  "persevering"  against  opposition  or 


STEADFASTNESS.  137 

temptation  of  whatever  sort.  The  idea  of  stead- 
fastness or  perseverance  rarely  occurs  in  the  New 
Testament  under  any  other  form  than  this.  It 
is  the  idea  of  enduring  and  holding  out  in  the  face 
of  adverse  influences.  Read  the  words  in  which 
our  Saviour  explains  his  own  parable  of  the  sower  : 
"  They  on  the  rock  are  they  who  when  they  hear, 
receive  the  word  with  joy  ;  and  these  have  no 
root,  who  for  a  while  believe,  and  in  time  of 
temptation  fall  away.  And  that  which  fell 
among  thorns  are  they,  who,  when  they  have 
heard,  go  forth,  and  are  choked  with  cares  and 
riches,  and  pleasures  of  this  life,  and  bring  no 
fruit  to  perfection.  But  that  on  the  good  ground 
are  they  who  in  an  honest  and  good  heart, 
having  heard  the  word,  keep  it  and  bring  forth 
fruit  ^Yith jMtienee.'''  In  other  words,  they  bring 
forth  fruit  by  persevering  in  their  faith,  their 
virtue,  their  knowledge,  and  their  earnest  and 
watchful  self-control.  Observe  how  the  apostle 
Paul  represents  God  as  awarding  eternal  life  to 
them  who  seek  for  glory  and  honor  and  immortal 
ity  "  by  patient  continuance  in  well  doing."  That 
"patient    continuance"   is   simply  perseverance; 


138  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

and  what  the  apostle  says  is  nothing  else  than 
what  Christ  himself  says,  using  essentially  the 
same  word,  "  He  that  shall  endure  to  the  end,  the 
same  shall  be  saved."  Just  this  is  the  "  patience  " 
which  the  apostle  speaks  of  when  he  says,  "  We 
glory  in  tribulations  also,  knowing  that  tribulation 
worketh  patience,  and  patience  experience."  He 
and  his  fellow-believers,  "  rejoicing  in  hope  of  the 
glory  of  God,"  exulted  even  in  their  tribulations, 
knowing  that  through  the  grace  to  which  they  had 
been  introduced  by  faith,  tribulation  would  be  the 
occasion  and  the  means  of  disciplining  them  to 
patience,  or,  in  other  words,  would  call  them  to 
exercise,  and  thus  to  confirm  their  steadfastness  in 
the  Christian  life.  They  knew  that  from  this 
patience  or  principle  of  perseverance,  tried  and 
manifested  by  tribulation,  there  would  come  "  ex- 
perience," or  the  experimental  knowledge  of 
the  gospel  and  the  consequent  conviction  of  its 
truth.  In  the  same  sense  of  the  word,  it  was  the 
same  apostle's  unceasing  prayer  for  the  brethren 
whom  he  especially  remembered  before  God,  that 
they  might  be  "  strengthened  with  all  might  ac- 
cording to  God's  glorious  power,  to  all  patience  and 


STEADFASTNESS.  139 

long-sufFering,"  —  that  is,  to  steadfastness  com- 
bined with  meekness  under  injuries  and  sorrows. 
So,  when  he  gave  thanks  for  the  spiritual  pros- 
perity and  fruitfuhiess  of  those  who  had  behoved 
under  his  ministry,  he  "remembered  without  ceas- 
ing," not  only  their  "  work  of  faith  and  labor  of 
love,"  but  also  their  "patience,"  (or  steadfastness) 
"  of  hope  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; "  for  it  was 
evidently  his  belief  that  as  works  of  Christian 
duty  spring  naturally  from  a  living  faith,  and  as 
love  naturally  manifests  itself  in  labor  for  those 
beloved,  so  steadfastness,  or  an  unwearied  perse- 
verance, is  the  appropriate  manifestation  and  re- 
sult of  Christian  hope.  In  the  same  sense  of  the 
word,  the  believer,  compassed  about  with  the  great 
cloud  of  witnesses,  is  to  run  his  appointed  race 
"with  pdtienee^^''  —  that  is,  with  steady  persever- 
ance,—  "looking  to  Jesus, — who,  for  the  joy 
that  was  set  before  him,  endured  the  cross,  despis- 
ing the  shame  :  "  —  endurance  is  patience  ;  —  he 
was  crucified  without  being  turned  from  his 
purpose.  "Where  such  "  patience  has  its  perfect 
work,"  there,  in  the  estimation  of  the  apostle 
James,  the  Christian   character   is   "  perfect   and 


140  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

entire,  wanting  nothing,"  as  if  all  the  graces 
of  holiness  were  formed  and  manifested  by  the 
discipline  that  tries  the  believer's  steadfastness. 
The  same  writer,  in  another  passage,  having  ex- 
horted his  readers  to  equanimity  and  cheerfulness 
under  vexation,  persecution,  and  the  pains  of  hope 
deferred,  by  reminding  them  of  the  nearness  and 
certainty  of  eternal  things,  proceeds  to  speak 
again  of  the  same  "patience;"  "Behold  we 
count  them  happy  who  endure^^  —  that  is,  who 
are  steadfast  when  tried.  "  Ye  have  heard  of  the 
'patience  "  —  the  steadfastness  —  "  of  Job,  and  have 
seen  "  —  in  his  case  —  "  the  end  of  the  Lord,"  — 
the  completion  of  God's  plan,  — "  how  the  Lord 
is  very  pitiful  and  of  tender  mercy."  So,  in  the 
visions  of  God  that  were  granted  to  his  servant 
in  Patmos,  when  the  vail  of  time  was  torn  away, 
and  he  looked  down  the  Ions;  reach  of  comiiio; 
ages,  he  exclaimed,  once  and  again,  as  he  foresaw 
the  successive  outbreaks  of  the  powers  of  darkness 
against  the  redeemed,  "  Here  is  the  j^atience  and 
faith  of  the  saints  !  "  "  Here  is  the  patience  of 
the  saints !  Here  are  they  that  keep  the  com- 
mandments of  God  and  the  faith  of  Jesus."     That 


STEADFASTNESS.  141 

"patience  of  the  saints"  is  their  constancy  of 
steadfastness. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  the  apostle  Peter 
finds  a  place  for  this  "patience"  in  his  catalogue 
of  the  qualities  that  make  the  completeness  and 
symmetry  of  Christian  character.  Nor  is  it  diffi- 
cult to  see  what  he  means  by  "  patience."  He 
means  steadfastness.  He  means  that  weight  and 
force  of  purpose  which  holds  out  in  the  face  of  all 
opposing  influences.  Having  admonished  his 
readers  not  to  let  their  faith  be  that  maimed,  dead 
faith  which  is  disjoined  from  the  manly  purpose  of 
well-doing,  —  and  not  to  let  their  virtue  be  that 
erring,  servile,  bigoted  consciousness,  which  is  dis- 
joined from  knowledge,  —  and,  again,  not  to  let  their 
knowledge  be  that  proud,  reckless,  dangerous 
knowledge  which  is  disjoined  from  temperance,  or 
the  purpose  and  habit  of  self-control,  —  he  proceeds 
to  counsel  them  that  to  their  temperance,  to  all 
this  combination  of  qualities,  they  add  steadfast- 
ness, stability  of  character,  the  element  and  force 
of  perseverance  in  well-doing. 

But  here,  perhaps,  a  question  arises  in  your 
mind  :  If  the  "  patience  "  on  which  the  Scriptures 


142  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

insist  so  much  is  nothing  else  than  steadfastness 
or  perseverance,  how  is  it  that  *'  patience  "  in  this 
sense  of  the  word  is  set  down  distinctly  as  one  of 
the  elements  of  a  Christian  character  ?  How  can 
it  be  made  out  that  perseverance  is  a  distinct  thing 
from  faith,  or  virtue,  or  spiritual  intelligence,  or 
temperance,  or  godliness,  or  brotherly  affection,  or 
charity  ?  Is  it  not  rather  something  essential  to 
the  very  being  of  faith,  of  virtue,  and  of  all  the 
rest,  and,  therefore,  indistinguishable  from  them  ? 
I  answer :  It  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  the  com- 
mencement of  a  really  Christian  life  does,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  involve  the  certainty  of  its  continu- 
ance to  the  end.  Yet  this  certainty  depends  not 
on  the  intrinsic  nature  of  the  Christian  life,  but  on 
the  gracious  purpose  and  promise  of  God.  There 
is  no  contradiction  and  no  absurdity  in  supposing 
that  there  may  be  faith  and  virtue  and  knowl 
edge  and  temperance  and  every  other  trait  of 
Christian  character,  and  after  all  a  fatal  defect  of 
perseverance.  Hence  it  is  that  perseverance  is  as 
distinctly  insisted  on  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  is  made  as  really  a  condition  of 
final  salvation  as  faith  or  repentance.      A  man 


STEADFASTNESS.  143 

may  make  ever  so  much  proficiency  for  a  season  ; 
he  may  advance  ever  so  near  to  the  goal  ;  but  if 
to  all  this  he  does  not  add  steadfastness,  —  if  he 
does  not  continue  to  the  end,  —  he  falls  with  them 
who  draw  back  to  perdition. 

This,  however,  does  not  complete  the  answer. 
When  we  see  a  man  drawing  back  to  perdition 
from  what  seemed  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  Chris- 
tian life,  we  may  indeed  infer,  (and  the  Scriptures 
authorize  us  to  infer,)  from  the  fact  of  his  falling 
away,  that  all  his  religiousness  was,  in  some 
respect,  unsound  and  hollow  from  the  begin- 
ning. In  this  sense,  it  may  be  admitted  that  a 
true  repentance  will  be  a  persevering  repent- 
ance, a  true  faith  will  be  a  persevering  faith,  a 
true  discipleship  will  manifest  itself  in  the  end  as 
a  discipleship  which  endures  to  the  end.  But,  at 
the  same  time,  it  is  true  that  there  may  be  faith, 
and  with  faith  virtue,  and  with  virtue  knowledge, 
and  with  knowledge  temperance,  without  all  that 
stability  which  Christ  and  his  apostles  mean 
when  they  speak  of  "  patience."  There  may  be 
an  instability  not  amounting  to  actual  and  final 
apostasy,  —  a  deficiency  of  weight  and  force  in  the 


144  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

character  of  the  man,  —  an  unsteadiness  of  aim 
and  purpose,  —  which  weakens  all  the  elements 
of  Christian  character.  Temperance  —  the  attempt 
to  subdue  the  appetites  and  passions,  and  to  bring 
the  whole  man  under  the  control  of  truth  —  may 
be  irregular  and  unsteady.  Virtue  —  the  living 
conscientiousness  —  may  act  now  and  then  with 
power,  and  at  other  times  the  mind  may  be  di- 
verted from  its  purpose,  and  the  conscience  be- 
come less  active  and  controllino;.  This  shows  us 
what  the  apostle  Peter  means  by  faith,  virtue, 
knowledge,  and  temperance,  without  steadfastness. 
He  means  that  sort  of  Christian  character  w^hich  is 
governed  by  impulses,  occasions,  sympathies,  and 
excitements,  rather  than  by  the  force  of  inflexible 
principles  and  well  formed  habits.  How  many 
instances  are  there  of  that  sort  in  every  place  ! 
How  many  professed  disciples,  who  are  zealous 
and  joyful  for  a  while  in  a  time  of  general  reviv- 
ing, and  seemingly  earnest  in  every  good  word 
and  work,  but  whose  religious  life,  like  the  physi- 
cal life  of  those  animals  which  have  their  winter 
of  torpor,  hibernates  through  the  interval  from  one 
revived  and  joyful  season  to  another  !     How  many 


STEADFASTNESS.  145 

hopeful  converts  are  there,  who  seem  to  run  well 
for  a  season,  but  are  strangely  and  sadly  hindered  ! 
How  many  who  received  the  word  with  joy,  and, 
as  we  thought,  were  adding  virtue  to  faith,  and 
knowledge  to  virtue,  and  temperance  to  knowl- 
edge, but,  after  a  while,  when  special  excitements 
and  sympathies  had  become  less  effective,  relaxed 
their  dihgence  !  How  many  who  have  no  root  in 
themselves,  and  so  endure  only  for  a  time  ! 

You  see,  then,  how  it  is  that  steadfastness,  or 
patience,  is  a  different  thing  from  temperance,  and 
different  from  those  other  elements  of  Christian 
character  with  which  it  is  associated.  Virtue,  or 
manly  well-doing,  is  the  legitimate  attendant  and 
the  natural  product  of  faith,  and  yet  there  may  be 
a  faith  in  which  the  element  of  virtue  has  not  yet 
been  fairly  brought  out.  Knowledge,  or  the  power 
of  moral  discrimination,  —  which  acts  intelligently 
and  with  the  sense  of  freedom,  instead  of  acting 
in  a  purblind  subjection  to  formulas,  —  is  necessary 
to  the  completeness  of  the  virtue  which  springs 
from  faith  ;  and  virtue  itself,  in  its  own  legitimate 
influence,  leads  the  mind  on  to  this  sort  of  knowl- 
edge.   Yet  there  may  be  virtue  which  is  defective  in 

10 


146  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

this  resjDect,  not  having  been  developed  into  knowl- 
edge, and  wliich  is,  therefore,  narrow,  censorious, 
and  servile.  In  like  manner,  knowledge,  with  all 
its  power  of  discrimination,  is  incomplete,  if  it  does 
not  include  a  vivid  sense  of  the  duty  and  necessity 
of  self-control,  or  if  it  does  not  actually  hold  in 
check  the  inferior  impulses  and  passions ;  and  the 
man  who  has  added  to  virtue  knowledge  will 
naturally  watch  against  temptations  of  this  kind. 
Yet  there  may  be  knowledge  to  which  temperance 
is  not  joined,  and  which  is,  therefore,  so  one-sided 
and  unbalanced  as  to  be  dangerous  by  tending  to 
licentiousness  of  living.  Just  so  temperance,  or 
the  purpose  and  attempt  to  subjugate  the  inferior 
passions,  is  incomplete,  feeble,  and  fruitless,  with- 
out steadfastness  ;  and  it  naturally  tends  to  com- 
plete itself  by  working  itself  out  into  a  firm  sta- 
bility of  soul.  Yet  there  may  be  a  fervent  temper- 
ance, striving  to  discipline  the  desires  of  the  flesh 
and  of  the  mind,  and  to  bring  them  into  subjec- 
tion, which,  not  having  yet  achieved  its  victory, 
is  too  dependent  on  impulses,  occasions,  and  sym- 
pathies, and  which  is,  therefore,  fitful  and  unstable, 
■ —  a  temperance  to  which  the  grace  of  steadfastness 
has  not  been  added. 


STEADFASTNESS.  147 

We  come,  then,  to  the  more  directly  practical 
question,  How  shall  we  add  to  the  purpose  of 
self-  control  this  grace  of  steadfastness  ?  What 
method  and  measures  can  we  use  with  ourselves 
to  develop,  in  the  beautiful  combination  of  faith, 
virtue,  knowledge,  and  temperance,  that  higher 
form  of  a  symmetrical  Christian  character,  which 
is  seen  when  to  all  the  rest  is  added  —  or  rather 
when  from  all  the  rest  there  is  produced  —  sta- 
bility or  perseverance,  as  opposed  to  a  mere  im- 
pulsiveness that  moves  or  stops,  like  the  wheels 
of  the  windmill  that  cease  to  revolve  when  the 
breezes  are  still,  —  or  that  rises  and  falls,  like  the 
mercury  in  the  barometer,  with  the  variations  of 
atmospheric  pressure.  This  stability  is  properly  a 
distinct  aim  and  purpose  of  the  Christian  self- 
discipline.  •  This  weight  and  firmness  of  character 
—  with  its  steadiness  of  movement  in  the  Chris- 
tian life  —  is  not  to  be  attained  without  attentive 
effort,  and  may  be  attained  by  diligence  in  the 
use  of  the  "  all  things  necessary  to  life  and  god- 
liness" which  are  given  to  us  "through  the 
knowledge  of  him  that  hath  called  us  to  glory  and 


148  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

I  offer,  then,  to  your  attention  these  practical 
suggestions. 

I.  Stability  of  Christian  character  is,  in  one 
sense,  a  natural  result  of  faith,  virtue,  knowledge, 
and  temperance,  as  these  qualities  have  been  here- 
tofore illustrated.  The  character  that  is  to  stand 
immovable  amid  the  fluctuations  of  external  in- 
fluence, like  a  light-house  amid  the  waves,  must 
have  for  its  foundation  a  firm  belief  in  the  great 
disclosures  which  God  has  made  concerning  things 
eternal.  On  that  foundation  there  must  stand  an 
earnest  and  strenuous  purpose  to  do  God's  will, — 
a  purpose  that  sets  the  whole  man  at  work.  That 
purpose  of  well-doing  must  enrich  the  mind  with 
a  practical  knowledge  of  the  great  principles  by 
which  the  moral  sense  is  guided  to  the  discern- 
ment of  duty,  and  is  emancipated  from  bondage 
to  narrow,  slavish,  blinding  formulas.  That 
knowledge,  the  enlightened  and  cultivated  power 
of  moral  discernment,  must  put  the  man  upon  his 
guard  against  the  misleading  and  degrading  power 
of  inferior  appetites ;  and,  while  teaching  him  the 
necessity,  must  train  him  to  the  habit  of  a  free 
and    Christian    self-control.      Such    a   character, 


STEADFASTNESS.  149 

growing  up  from  faith  into  virtue,  from  virtue  into 
knowledge,  and  from  knowledge  into  temperance, 
grows  naturally,  though  not  without  diligence  to 
that  end,  into  a  steadfastness  which  no  changes  of 
condition,  no  caprices  of  fashion,  no  ebb  or  flow 
of  popular  opinion  or  popular  excitement  shall  be 
able  to  overcome.  Remember,  then,  that  your 
stability  of  Christian  character  must  not  be  a  mere 
appliance  of  external  props  and  aids,  but  some- 
thing intrinsic  in  the  character  itself,  like  the 
stability  of  an  oak,  that  holds  with  a  living  grasp  to 
the  soil  in  which  it  grew  from  the  acorn,  and  that 
stands  the  stronger  for  all  the  winds  that  blow 
upon  it.  Let  yours  be  the  stability  of  that  self- 
balanced  character  which  is  formed  by  the  union 
and  cohesion  of  these  great  moral  forces,  faith, 
virtue,  knowledge,  temperance. 

II.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  not  unimportant  to 
say  that  the  temptations  to  instability  must  be 
watchfully  avoided  and  resisted.  A  little  thought- 
fulness  will  make  you  know  what  those  tempta- 
tions are,  and  how  easily  they  beset  you.  Beware 
of  them,  whatever  they  may  be  in  your  case. 
Beware  of  a  frivolous  and  trifling  habit  of  mind. 


150  CHRISTIAN-  SELF-CULTURE. 

Many  a  painful  instance  of  religious  instability 
comes  from  negligence  on  this  point.  Remember 
that  life,  in  this  world  of  probation,  is  a  serious 
and  earnest  affair ;  and  beware  of  those  compan- 
ions, those  books,  those  amusements,  those  views 
of  life  and  duty,  that  make  you  thoughtless  when 
you  ought  to  be  in  earnest.  Know  what  your 
weaknesses  are.  Know  on  what  side  you  are 
likely  to  be  assailed.  Know  at  what  point  it  is 
that,  in  your  mind,  the  principle  of  self-indul- 
gence and  self- pleasing  is  likely  to  prevail  over 
the  principle  of  duty.  Then  to  that  self-knowl- 
edge add  a  more  jealous  self-watchfulness  and  a 
more  resolute  self-control.  Thus  temperance,  in 
the  large  and  Christian  sense,  shall  be,  in  the 
growth  of  your  religious  character,  the  parent  of 
stability  and  perseverance.  Self-indulgence,  in 
one  form  or  another,  —  a  habit  of  pleasing  one's 
self,  —  a  yielding  of  the  mind  to  impulses  and  dis- 
positions that  ought  to  be  held  in  subjection, — 
is  the  chief  and  proximate  cause  of  religious  in- 
stability. It  is  not  by  accident,  nor  without  a 
serious  meaning,  that  the  grace  of  steadfastness  is 
named  by  an  apostle  in  close  connection  with  the 


STEADFASTNESS.  151 

grace  of  self-control.  Remember  her  who  lingered 
and  looked  back,  when  God's  angel  was  leading 
her  to  safety.  Forget  the  things  which  are  be- 
hind, if  you  would  press  toward  the  mark  for  the 
prize. 

III.  Above  all,  let  your  faith,  your  conscien- 
tiousness, your  knowledge,  your  self-denial,  be 
continually  reinforced  by  the  contemplation  of 
God  and  of  things  invisible  and  eternal.  This 
habit  of  mind  —  and  nothing  else  when  this  is 
wanting  —  gives  seriousness,  gravity,  and  im- 
movable strength  to  religious  purposes  and  affec- 
tions. 


CHAPTER  Vm. 


GODLINESS 


"Behold,  he  prayeth."    Acts  ix.  11. 

"  Thou,  wlien  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when 
thou  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father,  who  is  in  secret ; 
and  thy  Father  who  seeth  in  secret  will  reward  thee  openly." 
Matt.  vi.  G. 

"Praying  always  with  all  prayer  and  supplication  in  the 
Spirit,  and  watching  tliereunto  with  all  perseverance."  Eph. 
vi.  18. 

"  Continue  in  prayer,  and  watch  in  the  same  with  thanks- 
giving."    Col.  iv.  2. 

"  Exercise  thyself  unto  godliness.  For  bodily  exercise  prof- 
iteth  little :  hut  godliness  is  profitable  unto  all  things,  having 
promise  of  tlie  life  that  now  is,  and  of  that  which  is  to  come." 

1  Tim.  iv.  7,  8. 

"  Giving  all  diligence,  add    ...    to  patience  godliness." 

2  Pet.  i.  6. 

"  The  doctrine  which  is  according  to  godliness."  1  Tim. 
vi.  3. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GODLINESS. 

Intercourse  with  God.  Christianity  is  "godliness."  The 
reenthronement  of  God  in  the  soul.  Progress  from  faith 
onward.  Elements  of  godliness  :  the  "  fear  of  God ;  "  the 
habit  of  prayer ;  the  habit  of  praise.  Godliness,  if  genuine, 
presupposes  faith,  virtue,  knowledge,  temperance,  steadfast- 
ness, and  is  their  vital  power.  How  godliness  is  added  to 
patience. 

The  Christian  life  is  a  life  of  intercourse  with 
God.  "  Behold,  he  prayeth,"  as  it  was  said  of 
Saul  when  he  had  submitted  himself  to  Christ, 
may  be  said  of  every  one  in  whom  the  life  of 
spiritual  renovation  and  progress  has  begun.  If 
you  have  entered  on  a  Christian  course,  you  have 
already  begun  to  pray,  believing  that  God  is  the 
rewarder  of  them  who  diligently  seek  him.  You 
acknowledge  the  authority  and  embrace  the  prom- 
ise of  that  saying,  "  Thou,  when  thou  prayest, 
enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when  thou  hast  shut  thy 
door,  pray  to  thy   Father  who  is  in  secret ;  and 


156  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

thy  Father  who  seeth  in  secret  will  reward  thee 
openly.*'  A  praying  man,  "  praying  always  with 
all  prayer  and  supplication  in  the  Spirit,  and 
watching  thereunto  with  all  perseverance  and 
supplication,"  is  a  godly  man. 

"  In  all  thy  ways  acknowledge  God."  Look 
to  him  continually,  cherishing  the  sense  of  your 
relation  to  him,  and  of  his  holy  and  loving  pres- 
ence ever  surrounding  you.  Let  all  your  under- 
takings be  "  begun,  continued,  and  ended  in 
him."     This  is  godliness. 

,  The  word  which  in  the  New  Testament  is 
translated  "  godliness "  signifies  worship,  or  the 
sentiment  and  habit  of  reverence,  with  the  added 
idea  that  it  is  the  right  kind  of  worship.  Some- 
times the  word  is  used  as  a  name  for  the  true 
religion,  —  the  religion  which  acknowledges  and 
honors  the  living  and  true  God,  revealed  in  the 
person  of  Christ  his  son ;  and  sometimes  it  is  used 
as  denoting  that  particular  trait  or  habit  of  a  re- 
ligious life  which  the  word  particularly  describes, 
—  the  habit  of  recognizing  God,  and  communing 
with  him  in  acts  of  spiritual  worship. 

In  the  former  aj^plication,  the  word  is  beauti- 


GODLINESS.  157 

fully  suggestive.  The  religion  which  the  gospel 
proclaims  and  establishes  —  the  religion  to  which 
Christ  recovers  men  by  his  redeeming  and  renew- 
ing work  —  the  religion  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
on  earth  —  the  religion  which  the  Church,  made 
up  of  all  the  redeemed  and  holy,  maintains  in  its 
faith,  in  its  teaching  and  testimony,  and  in  its 
practice  —  is  godliness,  the  reverent  knowledge 
and  service  of  the  living  God.  Coming  into  a 
world  long  darkened  by  estrangement  from  God 
and  ignorance  of  him,  it  dispels  that  darkness  by 
restoring  the  knowledge  and  the  free  and  loving- 
worship  of  him  whose  presence,  seen  by  faith, 
illuminates  all  worlds.  It  reenthrones  God  in  hu- 
man thoughts  and  affections.  Wherever  it  goes, 
with  its  victories  over  unbelief  and  sin,  voices 
as  of  herald  angels  proclaim,  "  Behold  the  tab- 
ernacle of  God  is  with  men,  and  he  will  dwell 
with  them,  and  they  shall  be  his  people,  and  God 
himself  shall  be  with  them  and  be  their  God." 

Godhness,  then,  in  the  more  definite  use  of  the 
word  as  descriptive  of  personal  character,  is  noth- 
ing else  than  the  same  reenthronement  of  God 
in  an  individual  soul.     It  is  that  particular  aspect 


158  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

of  a  Christian  life  which  is  seen  in  the  intercourse 
of  thought  and  affection  between  the  individual 
soul  and  God.  As  the  world  lying  in  wicked- 
ness is  a  profaned  and  dishonored  temple  which 
the  gospel,  in  its  progress,  is  to  cleanse,  and  in 
which  it  is  to  reestablish  God's  spiritual  and 
accepted  worship,  —  so  the  individual  soul,  in  its 
apostate  condition,  is  a  desecrated  temple ;  and 
when  the  lustration  of  that  living  temple  has 
been  performed,  —  when  the  fire  of  sacrifice  has 
been  kindled  within    on    the    reestablished   altar, 

—  when  the  thoughts  and  affections  of  that  soul 
have  become  habitually  fragrant  to  God  with 
sweet  incense  of  a  penitent  and  loving  worship, 

—  that  is  godliness.  It  is  the  conscious  inter- 
course of  the  soul  with  God.  As  distinguished 
from  the  other  elements  of  a  Christian  character, 
it  is  the  habit  and  spirit  of  devotion,  —  that  state 
of  mind  in  which  God  is  consciously  present, 
the  object  of  trust  and  love,  as  well  as  of  awe. 
It  is  the  soul's  obedience  to  the  precept,  "  Pray 
without  ceasing :    in  every  thing  give  thanks." 

Perhaps  I   may  show  you  how  the  habit  and 
the  living  spirit  of  devotion  are  related  to  other 


GODLINESS.  159 

elements  of  Christian  character,  by  representing 
to  you,  if  I  can,  the  progress  of  an  earnest  mind, 
as  the  characteristics  of  the  new  man  are  succes- 
sively formed  in  the  heart  and  manifested  in  the 
life.  The  man,  we  will  suppose,  has  been  made 
to  feel,  with  some  degree  of  distinctness,  his  own 
estrangement  from  God,  and  his  need  of  a  Saviour 
who  can  bring  him  back  to  the  fountain  of  light 
and  life.  To  him,  in  that  state  of  mind,  the  gospel 
comes.  It  unvails  before  him  the  character  of  God, 
the  dread  realities  of  the  infinite  hereafter,  and 
the  way  of  salvation  by  the  reconciling  blood  of 
Christ  and  the  renewing  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
He  receives  that  gospel  as  true ;  he  accepts  its 
offers  as  his  hope  for  eternity ;  he  yields  himself 
to  be  guided  by  its  teachings ;  he  becomes  a  be- 
liever. This  is  the  beginning  of  his  Christian 
progress.  He  has  faith, — not  a  merely  specula- 
tive recepticfti  of  the  gospel,  but  a  confidence  in 
it,  —  a  living  faith,  which,  from  the  moment  of 
its  commencement  in  his  soul,  is  the  commence- 
ment of  a  new  and  spiritual  life.  In  such  a  faith 
is  involved,  undoubtedly,  all  that  makes,  when 
fully  developed,  a  matured  and  completed  Chris- 


160  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

tian  character;  just  as  the  oak  that  has  braved 
the  storms  of  a  thousand  winters  was  once  in- 
cluded in  a  tender  sprout  from  a  half-buried  acorn 
—  so  tender  that  it  might  have  been  crushed  by 
an  infant's  foot.  But  his  faith  will  grow  into 
that  matured  and  completed  Christian  character, 
only  as  he  gives  all  diligence  to  a  course  of  con- 
tinued and  divinely  guided  self-discipline.  To 
such  diligence  his  faith  is  prompting  him.  And 
now  as  he  inquires  what  God,  what  Christ  would 
have  him  do,  his  conscience  is  quickened  by  the 
impulse  of  this  new  princii^le  of  faith ;  his  moral 
sense  acquires  new  sensibiHty  and  power  ;  he  forms 
not  the  purpose  only,  but  the  habit  also,  of  doing 
always  that  which  he  understands  to  be  the  will 
of  God  ;  and  thus  he  adds  to  his  faith  virtue. 
As  he  pursues  this  course,  training  himself  to  the 
habit  of  well-doing,  his  mind  already  touched  and 
stimulated  in  its  intellectual  faculty  t)y  the  power 
of  faith  in  things  not  seen,  acquires  a  more  famil- 
iar acquaintance  with  the  comprehensive  princi- 
ples of  duty;  and,  by  the  practice  of  inquiring 
what  is  right  in  order  to  do  right,  he  rises  above 
mere   forms   and   narrow,  unintelligent   rules   of 


GODLINESS.  161 

duty,  and  learns  to  act  under  the  guidance  of  great 
principles  clearly  discerned  and  readily  applied. 
Thus  he  adds  to  his  virtue  knowledge.  Still 
going  on  toward  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  a 
perfect  man  in  Christ,  he  becomes  conscious  that 
nothing  is  more  adverse  to  his  progress,  or  tends 
more  to  pervert  his  moral  judgment,  and  to  lead 
him  through  freedom  into  licentiousness,  than  the 
remaining  power  of  those  desires  and  impulses 
which  reign  unresisted  in  the  natural  man.  He 
therefore  sets  himself  to  subdue  those  desires  and 
impulses,  to  get  the  command  over  himself  in  all 
his  feelings,  and  to  bring  his  whole  nature  into  a 
cherished  subjection  to  truth  and  God.  He  adds 
to  his  knowledge  temperance.  As  he  becomes 
more  acquainted  with  himself  and  with  the  dan- 
gers that  beset  his  way,  he  feels  more  deeply  that 
he  must  never  parley  with  temptation ;  that,  if  he 
is  to  escape  the  fate  of  those  who  draw  back  to 
perdition,  he  must  maintain  a  watchful  steadfast- 
ness, and  that  he  can  not  depend  on  impulses  and 
feelings  merely.  He  gives  all  diligence  to  be 
steadfast,  unmovable,  always  abounding  in  the 
work  of  the  Lord.  Thus  he  adds  to  temperance 
11 


1G2  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

patience,  or  holy  constancy,   the  patience  of  the 
saints. 

But  this  is  not  the  com})lete  analysis  of  Chris- 
tian character  or  of  Christian  progress.  Faith, 
virtue,  knowledge,  temperance,  and  constancy, 
must  be  supported  and  enlivened,  each  of  them  and 
all  of  them,  by  conscious  and  constant  intercourse 
with  God.  To  every  one  of  them,  regarded  as 
Christian  qualities,  the  recognition  of  God,  as  the 
object  of  the  soul's  confidence  and  homage,  is  essen- 
tial. A  holy  constancy  of  purpose  to  follow  Christ 
and  to  obey  his  words  is  impossible,  without  con- 
stancy of  intercourse  with  God.  He  who  would 
add  to  faith  virtue,  and  to  virtue  knowledge,  and 
to  knowledge  temperance,  and  to  temperance  stead- 
fastness, must  add  to  that  steadfastness,  and  incor- 
porate with  it,  the  habit  of  reverent  and  affection- 
ate communion  with  God  ;  or  his  diligence  in  other 
respects  will  be  to  little  purpose.     He  must  add 

"  TO    PATIENCE    GODLINESS." 

The  idea  of  o;odliness  as  distino-uished  from  other 
Christian  qualities,  and  the  relation  of  godliness  in 
that  sense  to  spiritual  life  and  growth,  may  be  set 
in  a  clearer  light,  by  recollecting  what  particulars 
arc  included  in  this  meaning  of  the  word. 


GODLINESS.  1C3 

One  part  of  godliness  is  tlie  luibitnally-clicrished 
sentiment  so  often  spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures  as 
"  the  fear  of  God."  The  godly  man  is  one  who 
carries  in  his  mind  a  reverent  sense  of  what  God 
is.  He  cherishes  the  awing  and  subduing  tliought 
of  his  own  relation  to  that  eternal  majesty  and 
purity.  He  realizes,  in  every  i)lace  and  in  every 
employment,  the  presence  of  that  holiness  to  which 
all  must  give  account.  He  learns  to  see  God  in 
all  the  works  of  creative  power  and  wisdom,  and 
to  acknowledge  him  in  all  the  unfolding  of  his  uni- 
versal providence. 

In  a  true  and  Christian  godliness,  the  sentiment 
of  veneration  toward  God  carries  with  it  a  senti- 
ment of  love,  or  of  aflPectionate  and  obedient  confi- 
dence. The  "fear  of  God,"  promi)ted  by  faith,  is 
something  very  different  from  a  slavish  dread.  It 
is  a  foving  and  adoring  awe.  It  has  no  place  where 
there  is  not  a  confiding  and  cheerful  complacency 
in  God,  an  elevating  and  inspiring  fellowship 
with  his  holiness.  The  godly  man  —  he  who  has 
effectually  received  "  the  doctrine  which  is  accord- 
ing to  godliness "  —  looks  up  to  his  Father  in 
heaven,  not  in  dumb  terror,  but  with  a  humble 


164  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

trust,  a  free  and  filial  spirit,  a  mind  rejoicing  in 
God's  power  and  universal  dominion  ;  and  this  is 
love  toward  God. 

Prayer  is  a  part  of  godliness,  and  is  essential  to 
it.  Mere  contemplation  is  not  godliness,  nor  is 
mere  sentiment  and  feeling.  A  man  may  have  a 
philosopher's  reach  and  depth  of  thought,  and  may 
meditate  sublimely  on  the  being  and  the  works  of 
God,  and  yet  not  be  a  godly  man.  He  may  have 
a  poet's  splendor  of  imagination  and  tenderness 
of  sensibility;  the  beauty  of  God's  slightest  and 
meanest  workmanship  may  fill  his  eye  with  tears ; 
and  yet  he  may  come  far  short  of  being  a  godly 
man.  The  devoutness  of  a  Christian  life  includes 
positive  worship.  It  is  not  merely  the  flight  of 
lofty  thought,  nor  the  flight  of  raptured  feeling. 
It  is  the  soul  addressing  itself  directly  and  ex- 
pressly to  God,  in  the  simplicity  of  the  "  belief^hat 
God  is  and  tliat  he  is  the  rewarder  of  them  who 
diligently  seek  him."  The  godly  man  regards 
God  as  his  Father,  to  whose  kind  ear  he  can  have 
secret  and  familiar  access ;  and  to  that  Father  he 
addresses  himself  in  all  his  weakness  and  in  all  his 
wants. 


GODLINESS.  165 

Nor  does  he  come  to  God  with  his  petitions  only  ; 
he  has  thanks,  adoration,  praise  to  offer  at  the 
mercy-seat.  He  loves  to  breathe  out  before  God 
his  reverence,  his  gratitude,  his  confidence,  and  his 
joy,  as  well  as  his  desires  and  fears.  The  true 
description  of  this  godliness  is  in  the  Bible,  full  of 
the  thoughts  which  godly  men  have  ever  loved  to 
utter  in  the  ear  of  God.  Surely  there  is  no  need 
of  my  taking  pains  to  show  you,  from  the  examples 
which  the  Bible  gives  you,  how  large  a  place 
there  is  for  adoration  and  joyful  praise  in  the 
soul's  intercourse  with  God. 

Observe,  then,  how  obvious  is  the  mutual  de- 
pendence between  godliness,  or  devoutness,  and  the 
other  elements  of  Christian  character. 

A  genuine  godliness  is  impossible,  except  in  con- 
nection with  the  other  elements  of  Christian  life 
and  progress,  and  especially  with  those  which  have 
been  illustrated  in  the  foregoing  chapters.  Godli- 
ness is  something  to  be  "  added  "  not  only  to  faith, 
but  to  virtue,  knowledge,  temperance,  and  stability. 
These  are,  in  some  sort,  the  indispensable  pre- 
requisites to  a  real  and  habitual  communion  with 
God.     We  sometimes  see  a  man  setting  out  to  be 


166  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

very  godly  —  a  great  example  of  devoutness  -  - 
without  conscientiousness,  or  moral  discrimination, 
or  self-control,  or  steadfastness  of  character.  He 
undertakes  to  add  to  his  faith  godliness,  omit- 
ting those  gi'aces,  intermediate  in  the  catalogtie, 
which  are  the  preliminary  conditions  of  a  developed 
and  thriving  godliness.  He  does  not  add  to  faith 
virtue ;  he  has  no  strong  and  earnest  consci- 
entiousness, no  fervent  pui'pose  to  do  always  all 
that  is  right,  and  to  avoid  always  all  that  is  wrong. 
He  does  not  add  to  virtue  knowledge  ;  he  does 
not  apply  habitually  in  his  life  those  great  princi- 
ples of  evangelical  obedience  which  make  the  be- 
liever free  indeed.  He  does  not  add  to  knowledore 
temperance  ;  he  has  never  entered  upon  that  con- 
flict with  himself  by  which  he  is  to  acquire  the 
control  over  the  passions  that  pervert  the  moral 
judgment  and  sear  the  moral  sensibilities  of  self- 
pleasing  men.  He  does  not  add  to  temperance 
constancy ;  he  does  not  combine  with  his  attempt 
or  profession  of  well-doing  that  steadiness  of  pur- 
pose, which,  having  once  put  the  hand  to  the 
plough,  refuses  to  turn  back,  or  to  look  back,  from 
the  furrow,  —  and  which,  instead  of  yielding  the 


GODLINESS.  167 

soul  to  the  power  of  emotions  changing  like  the 
wind,  and  of  impulses  fluctuating  as  the  sea,  keeps 
it  under  the  direction  of  principle  fixed  as  the 
north-star.  AJl  these  things  he  deems  of  little 
moment ;  but  before  these,  and  instead  of  these,  is 
to  be  his  godliness.  A  devotional  habit,  such  as  it 
is,  he  holds  to  be  the  whole  of  Christian  character. 
Such  godliness  is  unreal.  That  man's  religion  is 
vain.  He  may  deceive  himself — he  may  not  be 
that  gross,  low  hypocrite  who  knows  his  own 
hypocrisy  ;  but,  by  and  by,  he  will  be  found  to  be 
a  pretender. 

Godliness,  in  order  to  be  real,  must  have  some 
foundation  in  the  character.  It  can  not  stand  by 
itself  where  other  elements  of  Christian  progress 
are  wanting.  Godliness  is  a  renewed  and  holy 
mind  manifesting  itself  in  those  affections  and 
duties  of  which  God  is  the  immediate  object. 
But  will  the  mind  exercise  itself  aright  in  those 
affections  and  duties  which  relate  immediately  to 
God,  if  virtue,  knowledge,  temperance,  and  con- 
stancy are  wanting  ?  Godliness  is  the  soul's  com- 
munion with  God.  But  how  can  a  man  commune 
with  God  —  how  can  he  add  to  his  faith  godli- 


168  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

ness  —  when  his  faith  does  not  quicken  his  con- 
science to  virtue,  and  make  him  ahve  to  all  his 
daily  duties  in  all  human  relations  ?  —  when  his 
faith  does  not  inform  and  enliven  his  soul  with 
the  active  power  of  that  knowledge  which  is  the 
inspiration  of  free  obedience  ?  —  when  his  faith 
does  not  brinor  liim  into  conflict  with  all  the  in- 
firmities  of  his  corrupted  nature  ?  —  when  his 
faith  imparts  to  his  character  no  gravity  nor 
constancy  ?  That  man's  devoutness,  fervent  as  it 
may  seem,  much  as  he  may  talk  of  it,  much  as  he 
may  rejoice  in  it,  is  all  pretense  or  all  delusion. 

So,  on  the  other  hand,  the  foregoing  traits  of 
character  are  of  no  worth,  unless  they  lead  on  to 
godliness,  or  are  connected  with  it.  Let  there  be 
virtue,  knowledge,  temperance,  and  constancy,  all 
connected  with  faith  and  with  each  other,  as  they 
must  be  in  a  mind  that  is  truly  renewed ;  and  that 
renewed  mind  will  add  to  them  godliness,  for  with- 
out the  habit  of  intercourse  with  God,  they  are  all 
dead.  In  such  intercourse  with  God,  faith  finds 
its  most  invigorating  exercise.  In  such  intercourse 
with  God,  conscience  becomes  more  sensitive  to 
evil,  and  more  efficient  in  its  dominion  over  the  vol- 


GODLINESS.  169 

untary  powers.  In  such  intercourse  with  God,  the 
soul,  beholding  the  countenance  of  him  who  is  infi- 
nite purity  and  infinite  love,  is  inspired  with  clearer 
perceptions  of  the  law  of  love ;  and,  enlarged  with 
such  knowledge,  it  learns  to  walk  in  the  manly 
freedom  of  the  sons  of  God.  In  such  intercourse 
wdth  God,  the  soul  is  strengthened  for  conflict  with 
its  own  infimiities,  and  learns  to  strive  more  eai^ 
nestly  and  more  effectually  for  the  mastery  over 
itself.  In  such  communion  with  God,  the  soul 
grows  strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  his 
might,  and  thus  the  believer,  divinely  armed  and 
strengthened,  learns  to  stand  above  dependence 
upon  varying  impulses,  "  steadfast,  unmoveable, 
always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord." 

It  is  important,  then,  to  a  full  and  well-propor- 
tioned Christian  growth,  that,  while  you  use  all 
diligence  to  make  your  faith  complete  in  a  manly 
well-doing,  and  your  virtue  in  knowledge,  and 
your  knowledge  in  temperance,  and  your  temper- 
ance in  a  Christian  constancy,  you  use  the  same 
diligence  to  develop,  as  the  completeness  and 
beauty  of  your  constancy,  and  in  vital  connection 
with  it,  godliness,  or  the  habit  and  spirit  of  inter- 
course with  God. 


170  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE.  ' 

But  here  you  may  reasonably  ask,  How  shall 
I  add  to  patience  godliness  ?  By  what  care  and 
pains  may  I  acquire  these  devotional  habits  of 
thought,  of  feeling,  and  of  action  ?  How  shall 
this  element  of  a  well-proportioned  Christian  char- 
acter—  an  element  so  essential  to  the  complete- 
ness and  the  life  of  every  other  —  be  so  formed 
in  me  that  it  shall  be  self-manifested  in  my  life  ? 
There  is  a  simple  way  of  answering  such  inquiries. 

I.  In  all  thy  ways  acknowledge  Grod.  If  you 
would  have  your  constancy  in  the  Christian  pro- 
fession, and  the  steadfastness  of  your  well-doing, 
adorned  and  completed  in  the  beauty  of  a  de- 
votional spirit,  so  that  your  face  shall  shine  with 
an  unconscious  glory  caught  from  intercourse  with 
heaven,  you  must  be  careful  to  acknowledge  God 
in  all  your  ways,  remembering  distinctly  his  pres- 
ence and  your  relations  of  dependence  and  respon- 
sibility. Let  every  duty  —  not  religious  duties 
only,  but  duties  of  every  class  —  not  great  and 
arduous  duties  only,  but  all  those  seemingly  less 
important  acts  of  duty  which  make  up  so  much 
of  the  labor  and  discipline  of  this  life  —  be  per- 
formed with  a  distinct  reference  to  God's  will,  and 


GODLINESS.  171 

as  under  his  eye.  Let  every  temptation  —  the 
least  as  well  as  the  greatest  —  be  encountered 
not  in  the  unsupported  strength  of  a  sturdy  and 
steadfast  will,  not  by  inferior  and  merely  pruden- 
tial considerations,  but  by  throwing  the  mind 
upon  its  consciousness  of  God's  presence,  and  its 
assurance  of  his  gracious  help.  Thus  learn  by 
practice  and  experience  the  beauty  of  that  rule, 
— "  Whether,  therefore,  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  what- 
soever ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God." 

II.  Cultivate  the  habit  of  observing  God  in  his 
works.  The  whole  creation  is  full  of  the  Creator. 
Eyes  blinded  by  unbelief  can  indeed  explore  the 
creation  without  discovering  the  impress  of  God's 
hand  and  the  gleams  of  his  glory  that  linger  upon 
every  thing  that  he  has  made.  But  let  not  your 
eye  be  so  heedless  or  so  undiscerning.  Learn  to 
see  God  as  he  reveals  himself  in  nature.  See  him 
in  the  morning  and  the  evening,  —  in  the  beauty 
of  the  earth,  and  the  radiance  of  the  sky.  See 
him  in  the  swelling  bud,  in  the  opening  blossom, 
in  the  fruit  that  blushes  as  it  ripens.  See  him  in 
the  rainbow,  the  shower,  the  dew,  the  falling 
snow-flake.     See  him oh,  where  can  you  not 


172  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

see  him,  if  your  eye  is  once  opened  to  discern  his 
glory  ?  Thus  shall  you  find  yourself  ever  more 
and  more  encompassed  with  God.  Nor  is  God  to 
be  regarded  as  manifested  in  creation  only ;  to 
the  believing  mind,  he  is  continually  exhibiting 
himself  in  his  works  of  providence.  Learn  to 
acknowledge  him  as  the  Supreme  Disposer  of 
events,  without  whom  no  revolution  of  empire 
shakes  and  confounds  the  nations,  and  without 
whom  no  sparrow  falleth  to  the  ground.  See  him 
in  all  the  changes  that  affect  your  welfare  or  your 
duties.  He  gives  you  daily  bread.  He  appoints 
your  daily  tasks.  He  permits,  for  his  own  wise 
purposes  connected  with  your  highest  welfare, 
the  temptations  that  make  your  daily  conflicts. 
When  the  floods  of  sorrow  overwhelm  you,  and 
deep  calleth  to  deep,  it  is  the  noise  of  his  water- 
spouts that  you  hear,  it  is  his  waves  that  have 
gone  over  you.  Learn  to  observe  him  and  ac- 
knowledge him  in  nature  and  in  providence. 

III.  Study  to  become  more  ayid  more  acquainted 
with  God  in  the  Bible.  See  how  he  reveals  him- 
self there  to  your  admiration,  your  confidence, 
your  grateful  affection  !     See  the  illustrations  of 


GODLINESS.  173 

his  goodness,  his  mercy,  his  faithfulness,  his  loving- 
kindness  !  See  his  glory  shining  upon  you  from 
the  face  of  Christ !  Trust  in  him !  Commit 
yourself,  in  all  your  interests,  to  his  love  and 
power.  Fill  your  mind  with  his  thoughts,  as  he 
communicates  them  to  you  in  his  Word.  Let 
his  affections  reign  in  your  heart.  Let  his  in- 
dwelling Spirit  be  the  life  of  your  soul.  So  shall 
you  walk  with  God.  So  shall  you  dwell  in  the 
secret  place  of  the  Most  High,  and  abide  under 
the  tabernacle  of  the  Almighty. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


BROTHERLY    KINDNESS. 


"  Be  kindly  affectioned  one  to  another  with  brotherly  love/' 
Eom.  xii.  10. 

"  As  touching  brotherly  lore,  ye  need  not  that  I  write  unto 
you ;  for  ye  yourselves  are  taught  of  God  to  love  one  another/' 

1  Thess.  iv.  9. 

"  Seeing  ye  have  purified  your  souls  in  obeying  the  truth 
through  the  Spirit,  unto  unfeigned  love  of  the  brethren,  see 
that  ye  love  one  another  with  a  piu-e  heart  fervently/'  1  Pet. 
i.  22. 

"  Put  on  therefore,  as  the  elect  of  God,  holy  and  beloved, 
bowels  of  mercies,  kindness,  humbleness  of  mind,  meekness, 
long-suflfering ;  forbearing  one  another,  and  forgiving  one 
another ;  if  any  man  have  a  quarrel  against  any  :  even  as 
Christ  forgave  you,  so  also  do  ye/'     Col.  iii.  12,  13. 

"  Giving  all  dihgence,  add  —  to  godluiess  brotherly  kindness." 

2  Pet.  i.  5,  7. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


BROTHERLY    KINDNESS. 


Natural  affections  —  their  place  in  the  formation  of  a  Chris- 
tian character.  Brotherly  kindness  in  the  New  Testament. 
The  Christian  self-discipline  adds  to  godliness  brotherly  kind- 
ness. Godliness  without  human  sympathies  —  its  defects  and 
dangers.  Healthful  influence  of  human  sympathies  on  the 
religious  life. 

"  Without  natural  affection "  is  the  lowest 
deep  of  human  degradation.  It  is  always  to  be 
assumed,  in  dealing  even  with  the  most  hardened 
of  outcasts  from  society,  that  however  insensible 
he  may  be  to  moral  obligation  and  to  the  fear  of 
God,  there  is  somewhere  within  him  a  remnant  of 
natural  affection.  If  it  turns  out  otherwise,  —  if 
there  is  no  lingering  memory  of  mother  or  sister, 
living  or  dead,  of  father  or  brother,  of  wife  or 
child,  of  teacher  or  friend,  which  can  be  wakened 
into  tenderness,  —  there  is  no  hope  for  him ;  he 
is  more  than  "twice  dead;"  his  moral  nature  is 

12 


178  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

"  plucked  up  by  the  roots ; "  for  these  natural 
affections,  the  ties  of  sympathy  and  instinctive 
love  which  bind  us  to  each  other  in  the  special 
relations  of  human  society,  are  at  once  the  earliest 
and  the  latest  of  the  divinely  provided  restraints 
on  human  selfishness,  —  the  earliest  to  be  felt,  the 
latest  to  lose  their  power. 

It  would  be  strange,  then,  if  those  natural 
affections  had  no  place  or  part  in  the  formation 
of  a  Christian  character  and  the  progress  of  the 
Christian  life.  It  would  be  strange,  if  we  did  not 
find  the  apostles,  in  those  Scriptures  which  have 
come  down  to  us  from  them,  warning  us  against 
"  bitterness  and  wrath  and  anger  and  clamour 
and  evil-speaking,"  and  whatever  tends  to  disturb 
the  interchange  of  kindly  feeling  in  the  relations 
that  constitute  families  and  friendships  and  neigh- 
borhoods and  chm'ches  and  commonwealths,  and 
exhorting  us  to  ''  put  on,  as  the  elect  of  God, 
holy  and  beloved,  deep  feelings  of  sympathy, 
kindness,  humbleness  of  mind,  meekness,  long- 
suffering,  forbearing  one  another,  and  forgiving 
one  another,  if  any  man  have  a  complaint  against 
any."      It  would  be  strange  if  we  did  not  find 


BROTHERLY  KINDNESS.  179 

them  counseling  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and 
children,  masters  and  servants,  to  an  affectionate 
well-doino;  in  the  relations  that  bind  them  to  each 
other.  Most  of  all  would  it  be  strange  if  we  did 
not  find  them,  and  the  Master,  too,  insisting  with 
special  distinctness  on  the  affection  which  natu- 
rally springs  up  between  fellow-disciples,  partakers 
in  a  common  salvation,  worshiping  at  the  same 
mercy-seat,  working  together  in  the  same  blessed 
service,  and  recognizing  each  other  as  brethren  in 
Christ.  If  you  would  "  grow  in  grace  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,"  you  must 
take  care  not  to  be  wanting  in  this  element  of  the 
Christian  character  and  of  the  Christian  life. 

The  term  "  brotherly  kindness,"  or  "  brotherly 
love,"  as  used  in  the  New  Testament,  seems  to 
mean  social  affection  or  sympathy,  as  chat  prin- 
ciple of  human  nature  is  elevated  and  sanctified 
by  grace  in  the  believer,  and  particularly  as  it 
exists  amono;  believers  in  their  relation  to  each 
other.  I  need  not  undertake  to  prove  that  there 
is  such  a  principle  in  human  nature  as  God  made 
it,  —  a  principle  of  special  kindness  and  sympathy 
between  those  who  are  specially  connected  with 


180  CHRISTIAN   SELF-CULTUEE. 

each  other  in  the  bonds  that  constitute  society,  — 
a  principle  by  which  those  who  are  brought  into 
such  relations,  whether  in  the  family  or  in  the 
neigborhood,  whether  in  the  daily  studies  and 
sports  of  childhood  or  in  the  daily  labors  of 
maturer  years,  whether  as  inhabitants  of  the  same 
village  or  as  citizens  in  the  same  commonwealth, — ■ 
are  bound  together,  not  merely  in  the  sympathies 
of  a  common  humanity  and  the  vague  sentiment 
of  philanthropy,  but  in  ties  of  special  affection. 
That  there  is  such  a  principle  in  our  nature,  and 
that  God  must  have  designed  it  for  a  good  purpose, 
is  too  obvious  to  be  disputed.  Whether  this  prin- 
ciple of  special  attachment  can  be  analyzed  into 
other  and  simpler  elements,  is  a  question  of  no  con- 
sequence here.  Let  it  suffice  that  there  is  such  a 
principle,  and  that  it  belongs  to  our  nature  by  the 
will  of  our  Creator.  This  principle,  —  elevated  and 
sanctified  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  especially  in 
the  form  of  that  special  affection  which  springs  up 
between  Christian  believers  in  their  relation  to 
each  other  as  members  of  the  household  of  faith, 
—  is  what  is  meant  in  the  New  Testament  by 
"  brotherly  kindness,"  or  "  brotherly  love." 


BROTHERLY  KINDNESS.  181 

You,  then,  if  you  would  "  live  godly  in  Christ 
Jesus,"  must  take  care  that  your  godliness  be 
completed  and  adorned,  by  adding  to  it  brotherly 
kindness.  For  the  guidance  of  those  who  under- 
took  to  be  Christians  when  Christianity  was  new, 
it  was  not  enough  to  admonish  them  that  their 
reception  of  the  gospel  should  not  be  left  incom- 
plete, by  being  without  virtue  or  a  resolute  and 
conscientious  purpose  to  do  right ;  that  their  con- 
scientiousness should  not  be  misguided  by  being 
without  the  enlightening  and  emancipating  effect 
of  knowledge  ;  that  their  knowledge  should  not 
be  permitted  to  make  them  reckless  and  self-in- 
dulgent, by  being  without  temperance,  or  manly 
self-control ;  that  their  temperance  should  not  be 
the  fluctuating  conflict  with  inclination,  which  it 
will  be  if  it  is  temperance  without  steadfastness  ; 
that  their  steadfastness  should  not  be  mere  strength 
of  will,  or  force  of  habit,  as  it  must  be,  unless,  by 
being  conjoined  with  godliness,  it  becomes  a 
steadfast  walking  with  God :  —  it  was  also  need- 
ful to  admonish  them  that  their  godliness  or  de- 
voutness  should  not  be  without  the  softening  in- 
fluence of  social  affection  and  sympathy. 


182  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

Is  it  then  possible  that  godhness,  or  even  what 
seems  to  be  godliness,  may  be  separated  from 
brotherly  kindness  ?  Ought  we  not  rather  to 
presume  that  inasmuch  as  man  is  made  for  so- 
ciety, and  is  connected  with  his  fellow-men  around 
him  by  instinctive  affections,  piety  towards  God 
must  of  course  be  social ;  and  that  the  separation 
of  it  from  social  sympathies  and  duties  can  not 
really  be  ?  In  some  sense,  doubtless,  it  is  true 
that  worship  asks  for  society  and  sympathy  ;  yet, 
in  another  sense,  the  godliness  or  devoutness  of 
the  recluse,  who  shuts  liimself  up  for  the  sake  of 
being  religious  alone,  is  not  altogether  unnatural. 
That  particular  trait  or  habit  of  a  religious  life 
which  we  distinguish  by  the  name  of  godliness 
is  the  intercourse  of  the  soul  with  God.  It  is  the 
soul  looking  up  to  God,  habitually,  in  veneration, 
love,  prayer,  praise.  In  a  word,  it  is  worship. 
And  wherever  worship  is  really  offered,  —  wheth- 
er in  the  wilderness  or  in  the  city,  —  whether  in 
the  closet  or  in  the  o-reat  cono-reo-ation,  —  it  is 
nothing  else  than  the  thoughts  and  emotions  of 
individual  minds,  offered,  consciously  and  directly, 
to  God.     All  that  there  is  in  united  worship  to 


BROTHERLY  KINDNESS.  183 

guide  and  quicken  the  mind  is  without  effect, 
unless  the  mind  thus  quickened  and  guided  does, 
itself,  as  an  individual  worshiper,  address  to  God 
its  own  thought  and  emotion.  All  is  in  vain,  un- 
less the  individual  mind,  by  its  own  act,  is  brought 
into  communication  with  God,  not  tliroiigh  the 
minister  or  the  congregation,  but  directly.  De- 
voutness,  then,  or  worship,  which  is  what  we 
mean  by  godliness  as  an  element  in  a  religious 
life,  may  easily  tend  to  withdraw  itself  from  social 
affections  and  duties.  Inasmuch  as  private  de- 
votion, or  the  solitary  communion  of  the  soul  with 
God,  is  a  necessary  preparation  for  public  wor- 
ship, —  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  participation  in 
public  worship,  if  it  is  true  and  fervent,  sends 
the  worshiper  back  to  his  retirement,  there  to 
renew  and  pursue  his  personal  intercourse  with 
heaven,  —  we  need  not  wonder  if  sometimes  the 
devout  man  begins  to  feel  as  if  no  duty  were  to 
be  thought  of  in  comparison  with  the  duty  of 
prayer  and  meditation,  and  as  if  the  one  great 
business  of  his  life  were  to  contemplate  with  ador- 
ing thoughts  the  manifestations  of  God  in  revela- 
tion and  in  nature.     When  his  mind  has  fallen 


184  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

into  such  a  habit,  he  will  naturally  begin  to  feel, 
erelong,  as  if  his  human  affections  and  sympa- 
thies, and  the  relations  which  bind  him  to  society, 
were  a  disadvantage  to  him,  —  as  if  solitude  were 
better  than  society  for  his  religious  progress  and 
enjoyment,  —  and  as  if  he  ought  to  withdraw  as 
much  as  he  may  from  human  fellowship  that  he 
may  spend  his  life  in  waiting  upon  God.  Thus 
his  religion,  if  such  feelings  continue  to  gi'ow 
upon  him,  becomes  unsocial.  He  cherishes  the 
dream  of  some  retirement  wdiere  he  may  be  with 
God,  and  be  responsible  for  no  man's  welfare  but 
his  own.  The  actual  character  of  those  around 
him  who  bear  the  Christian  name  is  painfully 
incongruous  with  his  ideal ;  he  sees  no  benefit  to 
be  derived  from  fellowship  with  them ;  and  he 
thinks  that  if  he  could  be  freed  from  the  entangle- 
ments of  human  sympathies  and  social  duties,  he 
could  grow  in  grace.  His  godliness  is  honest  and 
earnest ;  but  it  is  one-sided,  and,  therefore,  incom- 
plete. 

But  what  are  the  defects  and  dangers  of  such  a 
godliness  ?  This  religion,  in  which  the  devotional 
sentiment  is  not  properly  united  with  human  affec- 


BROTHERLY  KINDNESS.  185 

tions  and  sympathies,  —  this  self-isolating  godli- 
ness that  enjoys  itself  only  in  the  shade,  and  lives 
only  in  its  own  musings,  —  what  are  its  tenden- 
cies in  respect  to  the  completeness  of  Christian 
character  ?  Can  it  attain  to  the  stature  of  a  per- 
fect man  in  Christ?  You  may  learn  something 
from  an  intelligent  answer  to  this  inquiry. 

The  most  obvious  answer  is,  that  godliness,  dis- 
joined from  brotherly  kindness,  tends  to  an  inac- 
tive and  indolent  type  of  religion.  It  muses  and 
thinks ;  it  kindles  with  the  fervor  of  its  own  medi- 
tations ;  it  prays  and  adores,  and  mounts  up  as 
into  heaven  on  the  wings  of  contemplation  ;  —  or, 
what  is  quite  as  likely,  it  walks  sadly  and  trem- 
blingly ;  it  weeps  in  secret  places ;  it  sees  not  the 
light  of  God's  countenance  ;  it  moans  over  its  own 
sorrows  ;  it  is  distressed  both  with  some  dim  feeling 
of  its  own  deficiencies,  and  with  the  sight  of  wick- 
edness and  sorrow  ;  it  often  repeats  to  itself,  "  O 
that  I  had  wings  like  a  dove,  for  then  would  I  fly 
away  and  be  at  rest ; "  —  but  it  forgets  to  ask, 
"  Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  "  Disjoined 
as  it  is  from  human  sympathies,  failing  to  recog- 
nize the  ties  that  connect  each  soul  with  kindred 


186  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

souls  around,  it  does  not  feel  the  impulses  which 
prompt  our  nature  to  activity  and  to  the  putting 
forth  of  influence  upon  others  ;  or,  if  it  feels  those 
impulses,  it  does  not  recognize  them  as  proceeding 
from  God,  and  essential  to  mental  and  spiritual 
health,  but  rather  as  something  with  which  god- 
liness has  no  alliance.  A  religion  thus  imperfect 
and  one-sided  is  deficient  in  respect  to  usefulness. 
Because  it  lacks  brotherly  kindness,  it  tends  to  the 
neglect  of  that  great  precept,  "  Let  us  do  good  to 
all  men  as  we  have  opportunity,  and  especially  to 
those  of  the  household  of  faith."  It  is  uncon- 
scious of  having  been  kindled  to  shine  as  a  light 
in  the  world.  It  is  like  a  lamp  lighted  in  a  tomb 
and  left  to  burn  itself  away. 

You  see,  then,  that  such  a  godliness  is  not  in 
harmony  with  the  divine  constitution  of  our  na- 
ture. Godliness,  disjoined  from  the  special  sym- 
pathies and  affections  of  human  society,  is  not 
such  a  godliness  as  man  was  made  for.  Man 
was  not  made  to  think  merely  and  to  feel,  but  to 
work  under  the  guidance  of  thought  and  the  im- 
pulse of  feeling.  He  was  not  made  for  solitude ; 
that  judgment  of  his  Creator,  "  It  is  not  good  for 


BROTHERLY  KINDNESS.  187 

man  to  be  alone,"  is  written  on  every  part  of  his 
complex  nature.  If  we  look  at  him  in  his  rela- 
tion to  God,  he  was  made,  not  for  worship 
merely,  but  for  service.  The  powers  with  which 
he  is  endowed,  —  the  natural  bonds  which  con- 
nect him  with  his  fellow-men,  —  the  affections 
and  sympathies  which  make  those  bonds  a  joy, 
and  can  not  be  suppressed  without  some  violence 
done  to  nature,  —  all  show  that  God  has  made 
man,  and  placed  him  in  this  world,  not  to  worship 
only  but  to  serve.  That  godliness,  then,  to 
which  brotherly  kindness  in  every  brotherly  re- 
lation has  not  been  added  as  by  a  vital  growth 
is  not  in  harmony  with  the  nature  of  man,  as 
made  for  activity  or  as  made  for  society.  Thus 
it  soon  parts  with  common  sense  ;  for  common 
sense  is  simply  practical  sense,  —  that  kind  of 
sense  which  takes  things  as  they  are,  and  deals 
with  them  as  they  are,  —  that  kind  of  sense 
which  God  has  given  to  man,  as  a  social,  active, 
working  creature,  to  tell  him  what  to  do  and  how 
to  do  it.  And  when  godliness,  or  the  sentiment 
of  devotion,  has  parted  with  common  sense,  it 
debilitates  the  soul  instead  of  giving  it  strength ; 


188  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

it   misleads    the  judgment;    it   becomes    itself    a 
morbid  thing ;    it  fails  of  honoring  God. 

Here  let  me  tell  jou  that  the  godliness  which 
is  separated  from  a  healthy  connection  with  hu- 
man sympathies  and  affections  tends  to  all  sorts 
of  errors  in  religion.  The  whole  history  of  re- 
ligion is  full  of  instruction  on  this  point.  God- 
liness without  brotherly  kindness  is  essentially 
enthusiastic.  It  lives  in  the  element  of  feelino-. 
It  is  imaginative  and  speculative.  It  has  to  do, 
not  with  the  tangible  and  every-day  realities  of 
sober  duty,  but  rather  with  the  world  in  which 
it  walks  alone,  musing,  communing  with  itself, 
kindling  itself  into  excitement  for  excitement's 
sake.  Thus  becoming  itself  unhealthy  and  erratic, 
it  tends  to  all  sorts  of  error.  It  is  likely  to  mis- 
interpret and  misapply  the  Word  of  God ;  for  the 
glory  of  the  Bible  is  that  it  is  so  wonderfully 
a  book  of  common  sense  and  common  life.  The 
recluse,  poring  over  it  in  his  cell,  separated  from 
all  human  activities  and  duties,  can  not  under- 
stand it  aright.  The  Bible  was  given  for  the 
•  support  and  guidance  of  man  in  society ;  it  was 
given  that  it  might  help  us  in  the  duties,  cares, 


BROTHERLY  KINDNESS.  189 

sorrows,  perils,  and  conflicts  of  this  actual  human 
life ;  and  in  the  cell  of  a  hermit,  who  has  fled 
from  the  duties  and  the  sympathies  of  manhood, 
it  is  as  much  out  of  place  as  a  sun-dial  in  a 
dungeon.  For  the  uses  of  that  unpractical  and 
self-secluding  devotion,  the  Bible,  in  its  common- 
sense  interpretation,  is  altogether  insufficient. 
And,  therefore,  that  such  devotion  may  find  its 
aliment  and  ^stimulus,  the  Bible,  studied  under 
the  guidance  of  a  morbid  imagination,  is  con- 
verted into  a  book  of  riddles  and  dreams.  The 
devotion  of  the  cell,  —  the  devotion  that  flees 
from  the  homely  sympathies  and  duties  of  soci- 
ety, —  is  the  parent  of  mystical  interpretation  and 
of  mystical  theology.  An  exaggerated  and  un- 
practical sentiment  of  devotion  sees  every  truth 
through  a  discoloring  and  distorting  medium,  and 
so  builds  up  its  own  systems  of  faith,  mystical  or 
metaphysical,  as  far  removed  from  any  sound  in- 
terpretation of  the  Scriptures  as  they  are  from 
the  actual  need  of  human  nature  in  its  appointed 
sphere  of  duty  and  of  trial. 

It   will   not   be   difficult  for   you  to  see  what 
advantages  the  devotional  spirit  derives  from  its 


190  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

legitimate  association  with  the  sympathies  and 
affections  that  belong  to  man  in  society.  In 
what  way  is  devoutness,  or  that  part  of  religion 
which  is  the  direct  intercourse  of  the  soul  with 
God,  benefited  by  being  joined  with  brotherly 
kindness  or  the  social  affections  ? 

First,  those  social  affections,  ennobled  and  ele- 
vated by  devotion,  react  to  enliven,  to  guide,  and 
to  strengthen  the  sentiment  or  prin^ple  of  devo- 
tion. Godliness,  to  which  brotherly  kindness  has 
been  added,  says,  "  Our  Father  w^io  art  in  heav- 
en." It  says,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 
It  prays,  "  Forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our 
debtors."  It  cries,  "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation, 
but  deliver  us  from  evil."  Godliness  without 
brotherly  kindness  is  godliness  in  the  singular 
number  only.  It  prays,  it  confesses,  it  adores, 
only  by  itself  and  for  itself.  Such  godliness  sees 
nothing,  and  knows  nothing,  save  itself  and  God ; 
and,  therefore.  It  knows  neither  itself  nor  God 
aright.  But  godliness,  in  its  legitimate  union  with 
the  sympathies  and  affections  that  belong  to  man 
in  his  relations  to  liis  fellow-men,  strengthens  it- 
self by   all  the   natural   strength  of  those  affec- 


BROTHERLY  KINDNESS.  191 

tions  and  sympatliies.  The  feeble  voice  of  lonely 
devotion  swells  to  a  manlier  tone  when  loving 
hearts  are  mingled  in  household  worship,  or  when 
many  gathered  households  in  the  Sabbath  congre- 
gation,—  friends  and  neighbors,  compassed  about 
with  the  same  perils,  struggling  in  the  same  con- 
flicts and  labors,  and  sharing  the  same  joys  and 
sorrows,  —  fill  the  temple  with  their  united  songs 
and  prayers. 

Thus  godliness,  in  its  legitimate  union  with  the 
social  affections,  becomes  an  active  principle,  and 
rises  to  a  just  ascendancy  over  all  the  powers  and 
habits  of  the  soul.  Instead  of  living  in  silent 
musings  only,  or  in  lonely  communings  with  the 
infinite,  it  comes  forth  into  the  sphere  of  human 
duties  and  sympathies,  to  sanctify  all  that  it 
touches.  When  that  natural  sentiment  of  wor- 
ship which  exercises  itself  in  the  immediate  ad- 
dresses of  the  soul  to  God  is  not  only  enlightened 
and  directed  by  Christian  faith,  but  strength- 
ened by  being  blended  with  the  sentiment  of 
brotherly  kindness  in  the  special  relations  of  hu- 
man society,  it  becomes  an  active  force  in  all  the 
soul's  activity.     The  man  whose  godliness  is  of 


192  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

such  a  sort  carries,  not  merely  the  form  nor 
merely  the  savor  of  godhness,  but  something 
of  its  power,  into  all  his  intercourse  with  men. 
Familiar  w^th  Christ,  through  whom  he  finds 
access  to  God,  he  communes  with  Christ,  and 
attains  to  more  and  more  of  his  spirit  and 
likeness,  by  following  him  in  daily  acts  of  broth- 
erly kindness.  He  is  the  godly  man  in  spirit  and 
in  truth,  whose  godliness  is  not  a  mere  sentiment, 
uttering  itself  in  prayer  and  song,  or  feeding  itself 
in  tranquil  meditation,  but  a  practical  habit,  blend- 
ing its  influence  with  all  household  love  and  duty, 
and  making  home  a  blessed  sanctuary,  —  the  house 
of  God,  —  the  gate  of  heaven.  He  is  in  truth  the 
godly  man  whose  godliness,  instead  of  being  iso- 
lated and  unsympathizing,  goes  forth  spontaneous- 
ly to  offer  the  right  hand  of  brotherhood  to  fellow- 
worshipers  and  fellow-believers  in  Christ,  loving 
to  work  with  them,  loving  them  because  they  love 
the  Lord,  and  loving  to  comfort  and  to  help  them 
for  Christ's  sake.  He  is  the  godly  man  whose 
godliness  mingles  unaffectedly,  yet  powerfully,  with 
all  his  friendships,  —  who  can  not  but  pray  for  his 
friends  because   he  loves  them,  and  can  not  but 


BROTHERLY  KINDNESS.  193 

love  them  the  more  because  he  prays  for  them. 
He  is  the  godly  man  whose  godliness,  instead  of 
being  a  sabbath-day  godliness  only,  or  limiting 
itself  to  some  particular  aspect  of  this  complex 
human  life,  hallows  all  his  patriotic  sympathies, 
and  guides  him  with  a  steady  force  in  all  the 
duties  of  citizenship  and  public  spirit.  This  is 
true  godliness,  when  the  acknowledgment  of 
God,  the  religious  or  devotional  sentiment  which 
Christ  has  awakened  and  enlightened,  the  feel- 
ing of  worship,  —  humbled  and  contrite,  yet  con- 
fiding ;  awed,  yet  full  of  hope  and  love,  —  invests 
all  the  legitimate  sympathies  and  duties  of  this  life 
with  the  awfulness  of  their  relation  to  eternity 
and  to  God,  and  lifts  up  this  whole  mortal  life 
into  the  sphere  of  heavenly  influences. 

Learn,  then,  to  correct  in  your  own  mind  —  if 
you  find  it  there  —  that  unworthy  prejudice  wdiich 
represents  religion  as  consisting  exclusively  in  acts 
and  exercises  of  devotion.  That  prejudice,  so 
widely  entertained,  dishonors  religion,  —  dishon- 
ors the  soul  of  man,  —  dishonors  God.  Religion 
is  not  a  separate  and  disconnected  thing,  arbitra- 
rily appended,  as  it  were,  to  the  character  of  the 

13 


194  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTUKE 

man ;  it  is  not  some  single  act  in  which  the  effect 
of  God's  grace  begins  and  is  finished;  it  is  not 
merely  some  distinct  series  of  devout  actions, 
running  like  a  golden  thread  through  the  com- 
plicated tissue  of  the  man's  various  activity ;  it 
is  not  the  effect  of  God's  grace  upon  some  single 
sentiment  or  faculty  of  our  fallen  nature ;  —  it  is 
a  new  life  breathed  into  the  soul  by  the  renewing 
spirit ;  a  new  creation,  in  which  old  things  pass 
away  and  all  things  become  new  ;  a  continued 
and  all- transforming  process,  in  which  the  whole 
body,  soul,  and  spirit,  —  all  faculties,  all  sensibil- 
ities, all  affections  and  activities,  —  are  sanctifiecl 
to  the  service  and  the  praise  of  God. 


CHAPTER  X. 


CHARITY. 


"  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and 
have  not  charity,  I  am  become  as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling 
cymbal.  And  though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  understand 
all  mysteries  and  all  knowledge  ;  and  though  I  have  all  faith, 
80  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am 
nothing.  And  though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor, 
and  though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not  char- 
ity, it  profiteth  me  nothing.  .  .  .  And  now  abide th  faith,  hope, 
charity,  these  three  ;  but  the  greatest  of  these  is  chai-ity."  1 
Cor.  xiii.  1-3,  13. 

"  Beloved,  let  us  love  one  another :  for  love  is  of  God ;  and 
every  one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God,  and  knoweth  God.  He 
that  loveth  not  knoweth  not  God;  for  God  is  love.  ...  No 
man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time.  If  we  love  one  another,  God 
dwelleth  in  us,  and  his  love  is  perfected  in  us.  ...  If  a  man 
say,  I  love  God,  and  hateth  his  brother,  he  is  a  liar :  for  he 
that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he 
love  God  whom  he  hath  not  seen  1"    1  John  iv.  7,  8,  12,  20. 

"  And  above  all  these  things,  put  on  charity  which  is  the 
bond  of  perfectness."     Col.  iii.  14. 

"  Giving  all  diligence,  add  —  to  brotherly  kindness, 
CHARITY."    2  Pet.  i.  5,  7. 


CHAPTER   X. 

CHARITY. 

The  great  commandment.  Love,  or  holy  benevolence,  im- 
plied in  every  element  of  Christian  character.  Yet,  in  another 
view,  it  is  the  consummation  of  progress  in  the  new  life. 
Brotherly  kindness,  or  instinctive  special  affection  in  social 
relations,  needs  to  be  elevated,  expanded,  and  completed  by 
the  spirit  of  universal  love.  The  self-disciphne  which  trains 
the  soul  to  charity. 

Brotherly  kindness  is  always  beautiful.  It 
not'  only  wins  our  sympathy,  but  commands  re- 
spect and  honor,  especially  when  it  is  visibly 
associated  with  religious  conscientiousness.  Yet 
the  precept,  "Add  to  brotherly  kindness  charity," 
gives  us  to  understand  that  in  a  completed  Chris- 
tian character  there  is  a  higher  principle  of  be- 
nevolence. Charity,  as  the  word  is  used  in  the 
New  Testament,  is  the  same  thing  with  that  love 
which  is  required  by  the  great  commandment, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself"  It 
is   love,    not   in    the    limited    and   inferior   sense, 


198  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

not  in  the  form  of  those  special  attachments 
which  exist  by  the  instinct  of  nature  between 
human  beings  connected  with  each  other  by  re- 
lations of  special  dependence  and  duty,  but  in 
the  higher  form  of  universal  benevolence,  —  love 
to  all,  without  limitation  or  partiality.  This  uni- 
versal benevolence,  —  which  is  to  brotherly  kind- 
ness or  the  special  affections  what  virtue  is  to 
faith,  what  knowledge  is  to  virtue,  what  tem- 
perance is  to  knowledge,  namely,  its  complete- 
ness and  its  security  against  being  perverted  and 
corrupted,  —  is  represented  as  the  consummation 
and  the  crowning  beauty  of  a  truly  Christian 
character.  Thus  the  apostle  Paul,  having  ex- 
horted his  friends  at  Colosse  to  all  the  acts  and 
manifestations  of  brotherly  kindness,  or  of  that 
special  affection  which  they  owed  to  each  other 
as  members  of  the  same  Christian  fellowship, 
proceeds  to  urge  upon  them  the  higher  and  more 
comprehensive  duty  of  universal  love.  Having 
entreated  them  to  "  put  on  "  sympathy,  kindness, 
humility,  meekness,  slowness  to  anger,  and  readi- 
ness to  forgive,  he  adds,  "  And  above  all  these 
things  "  — that  is,  upon  them,  like  a  girdle,  —  "  put 


CHARITY.  199 

on  charity  which  is  the  bond  of  perfectness."  It 
is  of  this .  love  that  the  apostle  John  speaks  when 
he  sajs,  "  If  we  love  one  another,"  with  a  love 
like  that  with  which  God  loved  us  and  in  which 
he  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins, 
"  God  dwelleth  in  us,  and  his  love  is  perfected 
in  us."  Thus  it  is  that,  in  the  passage  which 
above  all  others  illustrates  so  beautifully  the 
meaning  of  this  word  charity,  the  apostle,  while 
insisting  on  the  unspeakable  superiority  of  per- 
sonal holiness  over  all  gifts,  however  wonderful, 
and  showing  how  prophecies  will  cease,  and 
tongues  will  fail,  and  knowledge  will  vanish 
away,  says,  "  Charity  never  faileth  ;  "  and  again, 
"Now  abideth  faith,  hope,  charity,  tli^se  three;" 
—  these  are  the  permanent  things,  permanent  as 
religion  itself,  permanent  as  the  soul  which  they 
quicken  and  adorn,  —  "but  the  greatest  of  these 
is  charity." 

Yet  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  because  this 
love,  or  charity  is  the  crowning  grace  of  a  com- 
pleted Christian  character,  therefore  there  are 
some  forms  and  de2;rees  of  Christian  character 
in  which  this  element  is   wholly  wanting.       On 


200  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

the  contrary,  there  is  no  true  Christian  profes- 
sion, no  renovation  to  holiness,  no  effectual  ex- 
perience of  Christ's  saving  work,  without  love 
in  this  highest  meaning  of  the  word.  Thus  our 
Lord  himself  taught,  on  many  occasions,  that 
there  is  no  true  obedience  to  God  where  the 
heart  does  not  obey  that  great  command,  "  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  Thus  Paul 
says,  "  He  that  loveth  another  hath  fulfilled  the 
law  ; "  for  every  commandment  in  respect  to  your 
neighbor,  every  thing  forbidden,  and  every  thing 
required,  is  briefly  comprehended  in  this  saying, 
''  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  Love 
worketh  no  ill  to  its  neighbor;  therefore  love  is 
the  falfillirig  of  the  law."  And  again,  he  says, 
"  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and 
of  angels,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am  become  as 
sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal.  And  though 
I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  understand  all 
mysteries  and  all  knowledge,  and  though  I  have 
all  faith  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and 
have  not  charity,  I  am  nothing.  And  though 
I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and 
though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have 


CHAEITY.  201 

not  charity,  ft  profiteth  me  nothing."  All  works 
and  sacrifices  of  zeal,  even  in  the  service  of  relig- 
ion, are  worthless,  if  they  are  not  inspired  by  love. 
In  another  way,  but  with  the  same  purport,  the 
apostle  John  says,  "  Every  one  that  loveth  is  born 
of  God ;  he  that  loveth  not  knoweth  not  God, 
for  God  is  love."  "  If  a  man  say,  I  love  God, 
and  hateth  his  brother,"  —  not  his  brother  Chris- 
tian merely,  but  his  brother  man,  —  "  he  is  a  liar ; 
for  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he  hath 
seen,  how  can  he  love  God  whom  he  hath  not 
seen  ?  "  We  may  set  it  down,  then,  as  a  first 
principle,  that  there  is  no  truly  Christian  character 
in  which  lov^e,  charity,  universal  benevolence,  is 
not  an  element.  Wherever  there  is  faith,  a  true 
and  active  faith,  it  is  faith  that  works  by  love. 
Wherever  there  is  virtue  springing  from  faith,  it 
is  conscience  owning  the  obligation  of  the  law  of 
love.  Wherever  there  is  knowledge  or  moral  dis- 
crimination, it  is  a  mind  enlightened  and  trained 
to  see  spontaneously  what  the  law  of  love  re- 
quires. Wherever  there  is  a  Christian  self-con- 
trol, it  is  a  mind  struggling  against  its  own  in- 
firmities and  passions,  that  it  may  be  what  God 


202  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

would  have  it  be,  and  may  thus  fulfill  his  benev- 
olent designs.  Wherever  there  is  the  principle  of 
Christian  steadfastness,  it  is  the  perseverance  of 
a  mind  in  which  selfish  impulses  and  habits  are 
progressively  subdued  by  the  new  spirit  within,  — 
the  indAvelling  spirit  of  God's  love.  Wherever 
there  is  a  true  communion  with  God  in  worship, 
it  is  a  mind  that  beholds  and  adores  the  glory 
of  God  as  the  loving  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the 
universe.  And  wherever  there  is  a  Christian 
brotherly  kindness,  it  is  that  special  affection 
toward  members  of  the  household  of  faith,  or 
toward  others  in  relations  of  special  sympathy 
and  duty,  which  is  felt  and  cherished  by  a  mind 
that  pays  its  willing  homage  to  the  law  of  uni- 
versal love.  Without  a  mind  obedient  to  the 
law  which  says,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself,"  there  can  be  neither  repentance  to- 
ward God  nor  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
It  will  not  be  safe  for  you  to  forget  that  such 
charity  is  essential  to  the  beginning  of  a  Chris- 
tian life,  and  equally  essential  to  every  stage  of 
Christian  jirogress. 

Yet  it  is  not  the  less  to  be  remembered  that 


CHARITY.  203 

charity,  considered  as  the  completeness  of  Christian 
character,  "  the  bond  of  perfectness,"  must  be  the 
result  of  growth  in  grace.  As  related  to  other 
elements  of  Christian  life  and  progress,  it  is  the 
consummation  of  them  all.  In  one  who  has  just 
been  converted  from  entire  worldliness  and  unbe- 
lief, the  new  mind  may  naturally  make  itself  known 
chiefly  in  the  simplicity  with  which  it  relies  on  the 
reality  of  things  not  seen,  and  lays  hold  on  the 
offers  and  hopes  of  the  gospel.  It  may  be  ex- 
hibited in  a  new  tenderness  of  conscience,  and  a 
manly  purpose  to  do  right,  —  adding  to  faith 
virtue.  As  it  advances,  it  will  naturally  become 
more  familiar  with  the  principles  of  the  new  life, 
will  see  with  a  more  prompt  and  accurate  judg- 
ment what  is  right,  and  will  act  in  the  spirit  of  a 
larger  freedom,  —  adding  to  virtue  knowledge. 
Still  advancing,  it  becomes  acquainted  with  the 
need  of  a  vigilant  self-control,  and  manifests  itself 
in  the  endeavor  to  subdue  every  wayward  impulse, 
and  to  live  and  walk  in  the  pure  light  of  truth, —  and 
so  it  adds  to  knowledge  temperance.  As  the  same 
new  mind  goes  on  from  strength  to  strength,  the 
disciple  who  was  at  first  dependent  upon  frames 


204  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

and  feelings  becomes  steadfast,  a  firm  and  perse- 
vering Christian,  strong  in  the  stabiHty  of  prin- 
ciple, —  having  added  to  temperance  patience. 
Then,  you  may  see  him  in  another  stage  of  his 
spiritual  growth ;  he  walks  with  God,  day  by  day, 
in  calm  and  heavenly  intercourse  ;  he  dwells  as  in 
the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High,  —  for  to  pa- 
tience he  has  added  godliness.  Observing  still  the 
progress  of  his  character,  you  see  that  his  devout- 
ness,  instead  of  making  him  unsocial  and  austere, 
quickens  his  natural  sympathies  with  those  around 
him,  and  especially  with  his  fellow-disciples,  and 
the  grace  of  God  w^ithin  him  shows  itself  in  the 
sympathies  and  duties  which  connect  him  with 
brethren  and  friends,  with  home  and  country,  with 
the  church  and  with  the  civil  commonwealth,  —  for 
he  adds  to  godliness  brotherly  kindness.  Nor  is 
this  all.  In  that  brotherly  kindness  there  is  some- 
thing more  than  the  mere  play  of  natural  sympa- 
thies. Inasmuch  as  it  is  Christian,  the  brotherly 
kindness  of  a  soul  that  walks  with  God,  there  is 
in  it  continually  something  of  the  spirit  of  God's 
love  ;  and  thus  brotherly  kindness,  in  the  various 
forms   of   special  sympathy  and  affection,  grows 


CHARITY.  205 

into  charity.  The  circles  of  that  love,  obedient 
to  the  elastic  force  that  shapes  them,  spread  and 
widen  till  they  include  the  world.  The  disciple 
whose  conversion  was  first  seen  in  the  simple  faith 
with  which  he  laid  hold  on  God's  word  of  grace 
and  hope,  and  in  the  humble,  scrupulous,  yet  reso- 
lute conscientiousness  with  which  he  set  himself  to 
the  performance  of  all  duty,  stands  up  at  last  in 
the  manifest  likeness  of  his  Father  in  heaven,  who 
maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good, 
and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust. 

I  have  represented  all  this  as  if  it  were  a  natu- 
ral growth,  and  in  one  sense  it  is  entirely  natural. 
Yet  you  must  not  forget  that  there  is  another  view. 
In  all  the  progress  of  the  new  and  spiritual  nature 
there  is  need  of  diligence.  This  charity,  which 
so  beautifully  completes  and  crowns  the  combina- 
tion of  Christian  graces,  can  not  be  attained  with- 
out diligent  self-culture.  All  spiritual  growth  is 
simply  the  progress  which  the  soul  makes  when, 
forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind,  and  reach- 
ing forth  to  those  things  which  are  before,  it 
presses  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high 
calling  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ.      Charity  grows 


206  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

out  of  brotherly  kindness  only  in  that  soul  which, 
moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit  and  living  in  fellowship 
with  Christ,  is  humbly  and  earnestly  endeavoring 
to  become  continually  more  like  God.  In  other 
minds,  the  instinctive  sentiment  which  connects 
them  with  the  family,  with  kindred  and  friends, 
with  countrymen,  and  with  associates  in  the  same 
religious  body,  is  often  seen  to  be  the  antagonist 
of  charity. 

Think,  then,  what  these  instinctive  affections 
are  when  separated  from  the  spirit  of  universal 
love.  In  other  words,  what  becomes  of  brotherly 
kindness,  in  whatever  form,  when  charity  is  not 
added  to  it?  For  example;  what  is  patriotism 
without  charity  ?  The  love  of  one's  own  native 
land,  and  of  one's  own  countrymen  as  distin- 
guished from  the  men  of  other  lands,  is  a  natural 
affection,  and  there  is  something  generous  in  it,  as 
there  is  in  every  human  sympathy.  But  is  it  of 
course,  and  always,  a  benevolent  affection  ?  Does 
it  of  course  expand  into  benevolence  ?  On  the 
contrary,  is  there  not  in  every  land  a  vulgar  and 
heathenish  patriotism,  essentially  malignant  in  its 
tendency  ?     In   the  language  of  such  patriotism, 


CHARITY.  207 

as  in  the  language  of  ancient  Rome,  a  foreigner  is 
the  same  thing  with  an  enemy ;  or,  as  in  the  lan- 
guage of  ancient  Greece,  a  foreigner  is  the  same 
thing  with  a  barbarian.  Such  patriotism  breathes 
hatred  and  contempt  toward  all  mankind.  How 
plain  is  it  that  the  instinctive  human  sentiment  of 
affection  toward  one's  own  country  and  country- 
men, instead  of  being  essentially  benevolent,  is 
often  —  nay,  when  detached  from  Christian  prin- 
ciple, is  naturally  —  nothing  else  than  an  ex- 
tended and  exaggerated  selfishness,  the  more  odious 
for  the  grandeur  of  the  scale  on  which  it  operates. 
So  of  a  man's  instinctive  affection  for  his  family ;  — 
how  often  do  you  see  that  affection,  instead  of 
wakening  the  man  to  higher  and  better  sentiments, 
and  making  him  feel  (as  his  Creator  designed  it 
should  make  him  feel)  his  position  in  the  universal 
family  of  God,  actually  tending  the  other  way, 
and  making  him  more  and  more  selfish  toward  all 
to  whom  he  is  not  bound  by  this  instinctive  pas- 
sion. Just  so  the  sentiment  of  special  affection 
which  naturally  springs  up  among  those  who  hold 
the  same  religious  doctrines,  and  cherish  the  same 
traditions,  —  which  makes  them  feel  that  they  have 


208  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

common  interests,  and  which  brings  them  together 
in  a  special  communion  both  of  worship  and  of 
enterprise  and  effort,  —  needs  to  be  watched  lest  it 
become  uncharitable,  narrow,  bigoted,  the  antago- 
nist more  than  the  support  of  that  higher  senti- 
ment which  is  kindred  to  the  universal  love  of  God 
and  the  infinite  pity  of  Christ.  The  very  sym- 
pathy of  brother  with  brother  in  the  same  church, 
unless  each,  giving  all  diligence,  adds  to  brotherly 
kindness  charity,  may  degenerate  into  a  sectarian 
narrowness  of  feeling.  Who  will  tell  us  that  it 
does  not  often  so  degenerate  till  it  becomes,  in 
God's  sight,  hardly  better  or  holier  than  the  sym- 
pathy which  connects  the  members  of  a  political 
faction  or  of  a  masonic  fraternity  ?  Brotherly 
kindness,  thus  degenerate  and  corrupt  by  un- 
hallowed separation  from  the  principle  of  uni- 
versal love,  becomes  a  most  unchristian  clannish- 
ness. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  where  the  believer, 
walking  humbly  with  God,  and  loving  his  breth- 
ren of  the  household  of  faith,  gives  diligence  that 
he  may  add  to  brotherly  kindness  charity,  there 
brotherly  kindness,  in  all  its  sympathies  and  im- 


CHARITY.  209 

pulses,  is  hallowed  and  exalted  by  that  higher  prin- 
ciple of  universal  love  to  which  it  ministers.  In 
the  churchy  the  kindly  sympathy  of  brother  with 
brother  being  thus  ennobled  is  a  sympathy  by 
which  they  incite  each  other  to  aspirations  and 
works  of  Christ-like  love.  The  affection  which  binds 
such  an  one  to  his  own  family^  being  sanctified  by 
its  alliance  with  the  higher  principle  of  universal 
love,  is  an  affection  which  makes  him  more  ready 
to  feel  for  the  welfare  of  all ;  —  as  when  a  woman 
was  once  asked,  "  Is  that  your  son  for  whom  you 
are  so  interested  in  his  danger  ?  "  —  and  she  made 
answer,  "  No,  but  he  is  somebody's  son."  Such  a 
man's  love  of  country  swells  by  a  natural  expansion 
into  universal  philanthropy  ;  —  not  that  he  loves 
his  country  less,  or  is  less  ready  to  labor  and  to 
suffer  for  its  welfare  ;  but  the  circles  of  his  benev- 
olence still  expand  beyond  the  habitations  of  his 
kindred,  beyond  the  limits  of  his  native  land, 
beyond  the  mountains  and  the  seas,  in  fellowship 
with  the  all-embracing  love  of  God. 

By  what  kind  of  diligence,  then,  and  in  what 
methods,  may  you  make  this  grace  of  charity  the 
completeness  of  your  Christian  character  ? 

14 


210  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

1.  Cultivate  the  spirit  of  universal  love  by  a 
devout  and  intellio;ent  communion  with  God.  The 
Creator  of  the  universe,  who  has  filled  it  with  life 
and  with  riches,  and  whose  presence  and  character 
are  everywhere  manifested  to  the  eye  of  faith,  is 
the  God  of  universal  love.  The  controlling  and  up- 
holding power  of  the  universe,  watching  everywhere 
over  the  welfare  of  his  creatures,  and  overruling  all 
events  into  subserviency  to  his  designs,  is  the  God 
of  universal  love.  The  holy  Lawgiver  and  Judge 
of  the  universe,  who  has  hedged  up  the  way  of 
sin  with  dreadful  penalties,  and  who  makes  him- 
self known  in  all  worlds  as  the  protector  of  inno- 
cence and  goodness,  and  the  adversary  of  wrong, 
is  the  God  of  universal  love.  The  gi'cat  author 
of  forgiveness  and  salvation  for  sinners,  he  who  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son 
that  whosoever  bclieveth  on  him  may  not  perish, 
but  may  have  everlasting  life,  he  who  is  not  will- 
ing that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should 
come  to  repentance,  is  the  God  of  universal  love. 
Acquaint  yourself,  then,  with  God.  Have  com- 
munion witli  him  in  all  those  acts  of  homage  and 
devotion  which  he  has  appointed  as  the  modes  of 


CHARITY.  211 

intercourse  between  earth  and  heaven.  Behold 
him  In  all  the  relations  in  which  he  manifests  him- 
self to  the  adoring  and  obedient  mind.  Behold 
his  glory  as  it  shines  in  the  person  of  the  world's 
Redeemer,  that  so  you  may  be  changed  into  his 
image.  Bring  down  upon  your  soul  by  prayer  the 
Holy  Spirit  which  he  gives  to  them  that  ask  him, 
that  so  you  may  be  elevated  to  fellowship  with  him 
in  his  thoughts  and  affections.  So  surely  as  God  is 
love,  —  eternal,  universal,  infinite  love,  —  so  surely 
the  soul  that  lives  in  a  devout  and  loving  inter- 
course with  him  will  be  adorned  with  the  beauty 
of  resemblance  to  him,  and  will  become  a  par- 
taker of  the  Divine  nature  ;  for  God  is  love, 
and  he  that  dwelleth  in  God  dwelleth  in  love. 

2.  But  in  order  that  you  may  have  such  inter- 
course with  God,  you  must  also  discipline  your 
soul  to  charity  by  diligent  well-doing  in  a  life  of 
usefulness.  Observe  what  is  necessary  to  such  a 
hfe. 

Your  employment  in  the  world,  whatever  it  may 
be,  should  be  such  as  is  in  itself  useful  to  mankind. 
No  matter  how  humble,  or  how  ill-rewarded  in 
this  world,  is  the  daily  labor  by  which  you  live ; 


212  CHRISTIAIT  SELF-CULTURE. 

if  it  is  only  usefiil,  it  may  serve  to  discipline  youi 
soul  in  love.  It  is  not  enough  that  your  employ- 
ment is  a  lucrative  one,  and  that  with  the  gain 
which  it  brings  you  may  hope  to  accumulate  the 
means  of  usefulness.  You  will  never  grow  into 
the  likeness  of  God's  charity  in  this  way.  Your 
employment  must  be  itself  a  daily  contribution  of 
your  labor  to  the  great  aggregate  of  human  happi- 
ness. Never  permit  yourself  to  be  drawn,  by  any 
consideration,  into  an  employment  or  enterprise  in 
which  you  can  not  have  the  consciousness  that 
you  are  doing  good.  And  if  you  find  that  the 
occupation  into  which  you  have  entered  unthink- 
ingly is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  has  no  tendency 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  your  fellow-men,  —  still 
more,  if  you  find  that  the  more  you  labor  in  it  the 
more  are  you  doing  to  make  men.  wicked  and 
wretched,  —  you  must  abandon  it  and  betake  your- 
self to  some  useful  employment.  Do  you  think 
that  the  man  whose  daily  activity  in  business  goes 
to  swell  the  dreadful  aggregate  of  human  guilt 
and  sorrow  can  be  at  the  same  time  adding  to 
brotherly  kindness  charity  ?  No  ;  if  you  would 
put  on  charity  as  the  bond  of  perfectness,  your 


CHARITY.  213 

employment  must  be  such  that  in  pursuing  it  day 
by  day  you  may  be  conscious  of  doing  good  as  the 
servant  of  Him  who  is  love.  Pursue  your  busi- 
ness in  this  spirit,  and  all  your  daily  labor,  like  the 
service  of  a  ministering  angel,  is  exalted  into  relig- 
ion. Such  labor,  in  whatever  station,  though  it 
be  no  higher  than  the  labor  of  a  rag-picker  in  the 
streets,  or  of  the  barefooted  child  that  sweeps  a 
crossing,  may  become  a  blessed  ordinance  by  which 
the  soul  is  disciplined  to  charity. 

This,  however,  is  not  the  only  diligence  which 
is  necessary  to  a  life  of  usefulness.  Your  daily 
employment,  be  it  ever  so  useful  in  itself,  is  not  a 
sufficient  discipline  for  the  training  of  your  soul 
into  conscious  fellowship  with  God's  love.  There- 
fore God  surrounds  you  with  means  and  opportu- 
nities of  special  usefulness  additional  to  the  gen- 
eral usefulness  of  your  lawful  industry.  You  have 
many  opportimities  of  doing  good,  not  only  inci- 
dentally and  in  the  general  result  of  that  employ- 
ment by  which  you  live,  but  directly  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  good  to  be  done.  In  such  opportunities 
only  is  there  the  consciousness  of  doing  good  by 
self-denial.     You  must  use  such  opportunities  in 


214  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

the  spirit  of  self-denial,  if  you  would  discipline  your 
soul  to  charity.  Remember  that  word,  —  "  To  do 
good,  and  to  communicate,  forget  not."  Do  good, 
as  you  have  opportunity,  to  all  men.  Do  good 
not  to  your  own  family  and  kindred  only,  —  not 
only  to  those  of  your  own  church  or  sect,  —  not 
only  to  those  of  your  own  "  order  "  or  fraternity, 
—  not  only  to  those  of  your  opinion  or  party,  — 
not  only  to  those  of  your  own  country;  —  but  to 
all  men,  everywhere,  as  you  have  opportunity. 
And  how  many  opportunities  have  you  of  doing 
good  to  men  of  every  sort,  and  of  every  land  and 
lineage  ?  Seize  those  opportunities  ;  and  so  learn 
to  open  your  heart,  and  to  enlarge  the  sphere  and 
reach  of  your  affections.  Thus  learning  freely, 
under  God's  kind  discipline,  and  by  communion 
with  his  Spirit,  you  may  become  a  partaker  of  the 
Divine  nature. 


CHAPTEK  XI. 


CHRISTIAN   GROWTH. 


"  Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you.  As  the  branch  can  not  beat 
fruit  of  itself,  except  it  abide  in  the  vine :  no  more  can  ye, 
except  ye  abide  in  me.  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches." 
John  XV.  4,  5. 

"  Wherefore  lay  apart  all  fiithiness,  and  superfluity  of 
naughtiness,  and  receive  with  meekness  the  ingrafted  word, 
which  is  able  to  save  your  souls.  But  be  ye  doers  of  the 
word,  and  not  hearers  only,  deceiving  your  own  selves. 
James  i.  21,  22. 

"  Wherefore,  laying  aside  all  malice,  and  all  guile,  and  hy- 
pocrisies, and  envies,  and  aU  evil -speakings,  as  new-born 
babes,  desire  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word,  that  ye  may  grow 
thereby."    1  Pet.  ii.  1,  2. 


CHAPTER  XL 


CHRISTIAN    GROWTH. 


A  caution.  Christian  character  not  a  mechanical  structure, 
but  a  Uving  growth.  Mysteriousness  of  life.  Growth  of  a 
human  mind  from  infancy.  Growth  in  grace,  beginning  with 
the  new  birth.  Dependence  of  growth  on  food,  "  Sincere  milk 
of  the  word."  Relation  of  Christian  growth  to  Christian  self- 
discipline.  Conditions  without  which  there  can  be  no  spirit- 
ual growth. 

I  HAVE  been  describing  a  religious  life  as  a  life 
of  self-discipline.  I  have  been  showing  you  that 
the  gospel,  rousing  you  to  a  consciousness  of  your 
capabilities  and  of  your  need,  calls  you  to  make 
the  most  of  yourself  for  time  and  for  eternity ; 
and  that  it  comes  to  your  aid  with  infinite  offers 
and  promises.  Viewing  the  Christian  life  in  this 
particular  aspect,  I  have  been  describing  to  you 
the  separate  features  of  a  truly  religious  character, 
and  have  been  showing  you  how  one  Christian 
habit  or  quality  must  be  added  to  another.  Per- 
haps I  have  not  sufficiently  guarded  you  against 


218  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTUEE. 

the  impression  that  there  is  or  may  be  some  series 
of  exercises  by  which  any  man,  if  he  will  only 
put  himself  through  the  course,  may  attain  to  any 
degree  of  religious  proficiency,  —  some  drill  like 
that  by  which  the  raw  recruit  is  trained  into  famil- 
iarity with  the  details  of  soldiership.  Perhaps  I 
have  not  sufficiently  warned  you  not  to  press  too 
far  the  analogy  between  that  progressive  renova- 
tion of  your  soul  in  conformity  with  a  divine 
model,  and  the  process  of  building  a  house,  or 
constructing  a  machine,  or  of  hewing  and  chisel- 
ing a  statue.  Therefore  would  I  now  distinctly 
remind  you  that,  from  first  to  last,  the  formation 
of  a  tndy  Christian  character  is  not  so  much  a 
construction  as  it  is  a  living  growth.  The  Scrip- 
tures recognize,  indeed,  the  analogy  between  the 
progress  of  religious  improvement  and  the  con- 
struction of  a  building ;  they  call  on  believers  to 
build  up  themselves  on  their  most  holy  faith,  as 
well  as  to  edify  one  another ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  also  use,  and  with  much  greater  force 
and  variety  of  expression,  the  analogies  which 
they  find  between  the  spiritual  life,  from  its  be- 
o-innino:  onward,  and  the  vital  processes  of  nature. 


CHRISTIAN   GROWTH.  219 

With  them,  the  beginning  of  Christian  character 
is  a  birth,  an  ingrafting,  the  sprouting  of  a  seed ; 
and  its  progress  toward  perfection  is  the  growth, 
now  of  a  plant  from  the  germ  to  the  blade  and 
the  ear  and  the  full  corn  in  the  ear,  —  now  of  a 
branch  drawing  its  sap  from  the  stock  and  bour- 
geoning into  fruitfulness,  —  now  of  a  human  soul 
and  body  from  infancy  to  maturity.  Yet  it  should 
be  observed,  that,  when  the  Scriptures  use  the 
idea  of  growth  to  represent  the  progressive  reno- 
vation of  the  Christian  believer,  the  nature  of  that 
growth,  as  moral  and  spiritual,  and  not  physical, 
as  the  result  of  thoughtful  and  diligent  self-culture, 
and  not  of  mere  spontaneity,  is  never  forgotten. 
"  As  the  branch  can  not  bear  fruit  of  i'tself,"  saith 
Christ,  "  except  it  abide  in  the  vine :  no  more 
can  ye,  except  ye  abide  in  me."  "  Grow  in  grace, 
and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ."  "As  new-born  babes,  desire 
the  sincere  milk  of  the  w^ord,  that  ye  may  grow 
thereby." 

Christian  growth,  then,  by  the  mysterious 
forces  of  the  spiritual  life,  is  what  Christian  self- 
culture  aims  at.     If  you  enter  upon  that  self-dis- 


220  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

cipline  to  which  Christ  invites  you,  and  in  which 
you  may  expect  that  God,  according  to  his  prom- 
ises, will  work  in  you,  of  his  good  pleasure  to 
will  and  to  do,  all  your  proficiency  will  be  a 
growth  in  grace.  Doubtless  your  own  thoughtful 
diligence  will  be,  fi'om  first  to  last,  an  essential 
condition  of  that  proficiency ;  yet,  in  all  your 
proficiency,  you  will  be  conscious  of  dependence 
on  higher  forces  than  any  force  of  your  own  will. 
You  are  to  grow  as  the  plant  grows  under  the 
gardener's  hand.  He  waters  it,  he  watches  it,  he 
trains  and  prunes  it ;  but  in  all  its  growth  there  is 
a  power  at  work  which  is  not  his,  and  which 
giveth  the  increase.  Think,  then,  on  the  mys- 
teiiousness  of  a  living  growth  ;  for  with  all  your 
diligence  to  put  on  Christ,  and  to  train  yourself 
into  conformity  with  him,  the  same  mystery  will 
be  inseparable  from  your  growth  in  grace. 

You  look  upon  a  new-born  babe,  —  how  helpless 
a  creature  is  it,  and  how  frail !  But  that  weak, 
helpless  thing  is  born  for  progress.  Guarded  and 
fed  by  a  care  of  which  it  is  at  first  unconscious, 
it  not  only  lives,  but  grows.  The  food  j)rovided 
for  it  by  the  all-providing  hand  of  its  Creator,  and 


CHRISTIAN   GROWTH.  221 

received  into  its  healthy  system,  is  mysteriously 
transmuted  into  the  blood,  the  muscle,  the  nerves, 
the  bones,  the  entire  strength  and  beauty  of  the 
body  it  nourishes.  Thus,  in  due  time,  the  babe, 
by  slow  degrees,  quite  imperceptible  from  day  to 
day,  grows  to  the  stature  and  the  strength  of 
manhood. 

Analogous  to  this  is  the  growth  of  the  mind. 
In  that  new-born  babe,  the  mind,  with  all  its 
capacities  undeveloped,  and  with  fewer  instincts 
in  operation  than  belong  to  the  chicken  breaking 
from  the  shell,  is  nothing  more  than  the  germ  or 
the  folded  bud  of  an  intellectual  being.  What*  is 
there  of  thought,  of  desire,  of  volition,  in  that 
mind  just  entering  upon  this  mortal  life?  How 
entire  a  blank  is  its  consciousness  !  But  from  the 
moment  in  which  the  eye  first  opens  to  the  light, 
from  the  moment  in  which  the  ear  receives  the 
first  impulse  of  sound,  fr'om  the  moment  in  which 
the  sense  of  touch  first  encounters  resistance, 
from  the  moment  in  which  the  instinct  of  hunger 
or  of  pain  first  makes  itself  felt  in  that  germ  of 
human  life,  the  mind  begins  to  know,  to  think,  to 
feel.     In  other  words,  it  begins  to  receive  into  it- 


222  CiiRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

self,  and  to  incorporate  into  its  own  being,  —  in- 
adequately, no  doubt,  and,  as  it  were,  in  merely- 
infinitesimal  portions,  —  truth,  the  perceived  re- 
ality of  things.  Thus  the  mind  grows:  —  its  vari- 
ous and  marvelous  capacities,  which  at  first  were 
folded  up,  as  the  leaves,  the  flower,  and  the  fruit 
are  folded  np  together  in  the  bud,  are  expanded 
and  brought  out,  as  the  leaves  and  blossom  and 
then  the  fruit  come  forth  to  light  and  air  from 
the  opening  bud.  It  is  by  such  a  growth  that  the 
mind  advances.  The  intellectual  being  grows 
not,  indeed,  by  the  same  process  or  the  same 
means  with  the  material  organization  which  it  in- 
habits, but  by  means  and  by  a  process  suited  to 
its  nature.  It  grows  by  acquiring  knowledge,  by 
being  warmed  and  expanded  with  emotion,  by 
putting  itself  forth  in  choice  and  action.  It  grows 
by  taking  into  itself  and  digesting,  and  so  incorpo- 
rating wuth  its  own  existence,  that  manifested  and 
perceived  reality  of  things  which  we  call  truth. 
Truth  is  that  after  which  the  mind  instinctively 
hungers,  and  by  which  it  grows. 

When  once  the  mind  has  beo^un  to  receive  truth 
into  itself,  and  its  powers  have  thus  begun  to  be 


CHRISTIAN    GROWTH.  223 

unfolded,  it  is  thenceforth  for  ever  another  thing 
from  what  it  was  before.  With  the  first  access 
of  knowledge  to  its  faculty  of  knowing,  —  with 
the  first  movement  of  its  powers,  spontaneously 
unfolding  to  meet  and  to  receive  the  access  of 
knowledge,  —  begins  its  experience  as  an  intel- 
lectual being ;  and  that  first  experience  is  the  be- 
ginning of  its  growth.  Thenceforth  that  experi- 
ence is  never  lost.  Consciousness  may  not  ana- 
lyze it ;  memory  may  not  retain  it ;  no  image  of 
it  may  be  reproduced  ;  yet  it  is  not  lost.  All 
that  mind's  after-history  proceeds  from  this  point. 
Whatever  that  mind  knows,  feels,  does,  or  is,  for 
ever  afterwards,  is  blended  with  this  first  experi- 
ence. So  every  subsequent  experience  from  mo- 
ment to  moment,  from  year  to  year,  —  every  per- 
ception, thought,  feeling,  or  action,  —  is  a  part  of 
the  mind's  growth,  whether  for  good  or  evil.  It 
may  be  soon  forgotten,  and  never  recalled,  but  it 
is  not  lost ;  as  a  part  of  the  mind's  experience,  it 
is  incorporated  with  the  mind  itself. 

The  body  which  we  here  inhabit,  constructed 
as  it  is  for  temporary  use,  comes  to  the  limit  of 
its  growth  and  strength,  and  then  begins  to  decay. 


224  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

But  the  mind  is  of  another  nature.  Created  for 
immortality,  it  is  created  for  unlimited  progress. 
Its  growth  may  be  retarded  or  quickened,  may  be 
perverted  or  rightly  directed ;  yet  it  grows,  and 
there  is  no  reason  why  it  may  not,  in  some  sense, 
grow  for  ever.  Its  progress  may  be  clogged  by 
the  infirmities  of  the  body,  or  may  be  arrested 
and  apparently  suppressed  by  its  decay  ;  but  prog- 
ress is  the  first  law  of  the  mind's  existence.  So 
long  as  the  immortal  spirit  continues  to  think,  to 
feel,  to  act,  it  continues  to  grow  in  some  sort ; 
each  act,  each  emotion,  each  thought,  throughout 
its  immortality,  is,  as  it  were,  some  little  line  or 
particle  added  to  the  previous  amount  of  its  exist- 
ence. 

The  quality  of  the  mind's  growth  depends  on 
the  quality  of  the  nutriment  by  which  it  grows. 
Truth,  simple  and  pure,  —  the  reality  of  things, 
fairly  and  rightly  apprehended,  —  is  the  soul's  fit 
aliment ;  and  when  the  soul  is  thus  fed,  its  growth 
is  sound.  But  when  the  truth  is  mixed  with  false 
apprehensions  of  things,  or  when  from  whatever 
cause  it  is  not  fairly  and  simply  received  into  the 
mind  as  truth,  the  growth  becomes  diseased,  de- 


CHRISTIAN   GROWTH.  225 

formed,  monstrous,  or  dwarfish.  When  the  mind, 
instead  of  desiring  the  truth  and  accepting  it,  re- 
jects it  and  yields  itself  to  folly,  its  growth,  instead 
of  being  a  joyful  progress  from  one  degree  of  wis- 
dom and  manliness  to  another,  is  a  growth  in  folly 
and  madness.  He  that  "  feedeth  on  wind,  and 
followeth  after  the  east  wind,"  "  daily  increaseth 
lies  and  desolation."  He  that  "  feedeth  on  ashes  " 
is  he  whom  "  a  deceived  heart  hath  turned  aside." 
Such  is  the  growth  of  the  mind  in  general.  I 
have  described  it  to  you  for  the  sake  of  illustrating 
that  Christian  growth  to  which  I  would  have  you 
aspire.  That  growth  in  grace  and  in  ihe  knowl- 
edge of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
progress  and  development  of  spiritual  life.  It  is 
the  growth  of  the  regenerate  soul  in  likeness  to 
God  and  in  fellowship  with  him.  I  say,  the  re- 
generate soul,  because  progress  presupposes  a  be- 
ginning, growth  presupposes  a  birth ;  and  because 
the  beginning  of  this  spiritual  life  is  not  by  mere 
nature,  but  by  grace,  —  not  by  being  born  of  the 
flesh,  but  by  being  born  of  the  Spirit.  The  soul, 
awaking  from  the  torpor  of  its  native  ungodliness, 
led  to  repentance,  led  to  Christ,  trusting  in  him, 

15 


226  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

and  sitting  at  his  feet  to  learn  of  him,  becomes  a 
new  creature ;  and  thus  there  begins  in  that  soul 
a  new  life,  —  a  life  which  has  its  being  and  its 
blessedness  in  a  willing  subjection  to  God.  In 
that  life  the  soul  is  conscious  of  its  relation  to 
God  through  Christ,  and  conscious  of  living  for 
eternity.  The  soul  thus  born  again  is  born  to 
progress.  That  soul's  continual  experience,  tast- 
ing that  the  Lord  is  gracious,  is  a  continual 
growth  in  grace,  —  a  growth  in  which  the  nature 
of  the  soul,  as  created  for  conscious  and  willing 
subjection  to  God,  becomes  more  and  more  un- 
folded, —  a  growth  in  which  the  soul  is  habitually- 
approaching  toward  a  perfect  conformity  to  God's 
moral  imaxre. 

The  food  that  nourishes  the  soul  for  spiritual 
growth  is  the  word  of  God,  or,  in  the  phrase  of 
an  apostle,  ''  the  sincere  [or  unadulterated]  milk 
of  the  word."  It  is  truth,  —  such  truth  as  is 
suited  to  sustain  the  soul  in  a  life  of  fellowship 
with  God.  It  is  that  truth  which  God  has  re- 
vealed concerning  himself,  —  all  the  gospel  of  his 
grace,  and  especially  the  true  and  faithful  saying 
in  which  all  is  comprehended,  "  Christ  Jesus  came 


CHRISTIAN  GROWTH.  227 

into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  It  is  the  truth 
in  its  simplicity,  "  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word," 
—  the  word,  not  as  conveyed  by  moldy  and 
corrupting  traditions,  —  not  as  coagulated  by  met- 
aphysical discussion,  and  pressed  into  scientific 
propositions  dry  and  hard,  —  not  as  imbittered 
and  perhaps  made  poisonous  by  controversial 
and  sectarian  passions,  —  not  as  diluted  by  the 
tricks  of  fancy  and  the  deceitfulness  of  a  heart 
unwilling  to  encounter  and  recognize  the  plain 
reality  of  things,  —  but  simply  "  the  word  which 
by  the  gospel  is  preached  to  you."  In  the  gos- 
pel, no  truth  is  set  forth  merely  as  an  abstract 
proposition  to  be  received  into  the  understanding 
and  to  lie  unproductive  in  the  memory;  but,  on 
the  contrary,  every  truth  is  given  out  as  an  ap- 
peal to  conscience,  or  to  some  aflPection  of  the 
soul ;  every  truth  stands  as  a  motive  to  repen- 
tance, to  submission,  to  holy  confidence  in  God, 
to  adoration,  to  obedience,  to  love.  Thus  in  the 
gospel  every  truth  is  vital,  giving  and  sustaining 
life  in  the  believing  soul.  He  who  has  once  "  tasted 
that  the  Lord  is  gracious  "  must  needs  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness  ;   nor  can  he  find  any 


228  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

tliiiw  else  than  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word  to 
satisfy  that  craving.  "  How  sweet  are  thy  words 
unto  my  taste  ! "  The  soul,  feeding  upon  immortal 
truth,  becoming  more  and  more  familiar  with 
what  God  has  made  known  concerning  himself 
and  his  eternal  counsels  of  love,  —  drawing  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  glory  of  God  in  Christ,  —  ani- 
mated and  inspired  more  and  more  with  thoughts 
of  eternity  and  heaven,  of  the  cross,  the  conflict, 
and  the  victory,  —  apprehending  and  taking  in 
more  completely  the  exceeding  great  and  precious 
promises,  —  becomes  more  holy  and  heavenly, 
bears  more  of  God's  likeness,  partakes  more 
gloriously  of  his  nature,  grows  daily  toward  the 
perfect  stature  and  the  Christ-like  beauty  of  its 
approaching  immortality. 

But  what  connection  is  there  between  this  spir- 
itual growth  and  that  Christian  self-discipline  to 
which  you  are  invited  ?  Perhaps  you  are  ready 
to  ask  whether  a  vital  growth  is  not  necessarily 
spontaneous  and  unconscious,  and  whether  this 
idea  of  Christian  progress  is  not  simply  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  idea  of  progress  by  self-discipline. 
I  have  already  touched  upon  this  thought ;   but 


CHRISTIAN  GROWTH.  229 

let  US  now  return  to  it,  and  see  how  spiritual 
growth,  in  all  its  spontaneousness  and  uncon- 
sciousness, may  be  the  result  of  conscious  and 
resolute  endeavor.  The  idea  of  growth  is  not 
incongruous  with  the  idea  of  culture ;  and  self- 
culture  is  self-discipline. 

What  is  the  representation  of  the  Scriptures 
concerning  Christian  progress,  considered  as  a 
vital  growth  ?  They  clearly  teach  us  that  cer- 
tain conditions  are  necessary  to  this  spiritual 
growth,  and  those  conditions  are  such  as  can  not 
take  place  unconsciously  or  involuntarily.  "  Where- 
fore, laying  aside  all  malice  [or  wickedness],  and 
all  guile,  and  hypocrisies,  and  envies,  and  all  evil- 
speakings,  as  new-born  babes  [that  is,  with  all  sim- 
plicity], desire  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word,  that 
ye  may  grow  thereby."  That  the  word  may 
have  its  effect,  the  mind  must  be  in  a  state  to 
receive  it  and  relish  it,  and  thus  to  be  nourished 
by  it. 

Another  apostle  uses  another  comparison  to 
illustrate  the  same  idea.  "  Wherefore  lay  apart 
all  filthiness,  and  superfluity  of  naughtiness,  and 
receive  with  meekness  the  ingrafted  word,  which 


230  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

is  able  to  save  your  soiils."  When  the  vine- 
dresser would  insert  into  a  worthless  stock  a  graft 
of  fruitful  and  generous  nature,  he  begins  by 
pruning  off  the  superfluous  growth  of  the  old 
stock ;  he  removes  those  worthless  shoots  and 
branches,  that  the  graft,  drawing  to  itself  the  sap 
and  life  of  the  stock,  may  have  the  opportunity 
to  bring  forth  fruit  according  to  its  nature  from 
the  root  which  yielded  no  good  fruit  before.  So 
if  the  word  of  God  is  to  be  grafted  effectually 
into  your  soul,  and  if  the  ingrafted  word  is  to 
live  within  you  and  bear  fruit  according  to  its 
nature,  the  process  must  begin  with  the  pruning- 
off  of  the  superfluous  wild  growth.  In  other 
language,  dropping  the  figure,  you  must  renounce 
and  resist  the  wayward  affections  that  reign  with- 
in you  by  nature;  you  must  deny  yourself;  you 
must  overcome  those  habits  of  affection,  of  action, 
and  of  thought,  which  are  contrary  to  truth  and 
holiness ;  and  thus  you  must  receive  the  word 
*'  with  meekness,"  —  that  is,  with  a  mind  so  sim- 
ple so  calm,  so  humble,  that  wayward  passions 
and  wild  affections  shall  not  choke  the  word,  and 
cause  it  to  become  unfruitful. 


CHRISTIAN  GROWTH.  231 

Returning,  now,  to  the  figure  which  the  apostle 
Peter  uses,  we  find  it  setting  forth  the  same  idea 
of  the  conditions  without  whicli  there  is  no  spir- 
itual growth.  If  you  would  relish  the  pure  milk 
of  the  word,  and  grow  thereby,  as  the  new-born 
babe  lives  and  grows  by  its  appropriate  food,  you 
must  become  like  that  new-born  babe  ;  you  must 
lay  "  aside  all  malice,  and  all  guile,  and  hypoc- 
risies, and  envies,  and  all  evil-speakings ; "  you 
must  suppress  all  selfish  habits  and  impulses,  all 
deceit  and  affectation,  all  that  disposition  which 
hungers  and  thirsts  after  the  seeming  and  advan- 
tages of  righteousness  rather  than  after  righteous- 
ness itself,  all  that  spirit  of  self-exaltation  which 
moves  you  to  envy  and  makes  another's  welfare 
or  progress  less  desirable  to  you  than  your  own, 
and  especially  all  those  evil  and  unloving  words 
in  which  the  spirit  of  selfishness  seeks  to  express 
itself.  The  necessary  condition  of  the  soul's 
growth  in  holiness,  —  the  condition  without  which 
the  Word  of  God  can  not  be  effectual  to  spiritual 
growth,  —  is  that  the  soul  shall  diligently  resist 
all  those  propensities  which  are  contrary  to  the 
Word,  and  to  that  life  which  the  Word  nourishes. 


232  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

The  order  of  nature  and  of  grace  is,  —  the  order 
of  all  experience  is,  —  "  cease  to  do  evil ;  learn  to 
do  well."  You  can  not  learn  to  do  well,  unless 
you  begin  by  ceasing  to  do  evil. 

You  see,  then,  how  it  is  that  men  may  hear 
the  word  of  God  and  read  it,  may  find  their 
thoughts  and  feelings  deeply  interested  in  it, 
may  even  make  it  the  subject-matter  of  their 
studies  and  of  the  profoundest  speculative  in- 
quiry, and  may  yet  remain  without  God  in 
the  world.  It  is  not  that  there  is  no  efficacy  in 
the  word.  It  is  not  that  the  word  is  not  suited 
to  their  nature  and  capacities.  It  is  that  they 
will  not  truly  and  frankly  cease  to  do  evil,  in 
order  that  they  may  learn  to  do  well.  It  is  that 
they  will  not  repent,  in  order  to  obey.  It  is  that 
they  will  not  prune  off  the  irregular,  worthless, 
thorny  growth  of  selfishness  and  ungodliness,  in 
order  to  receive  with  meekness  the  ingrafted  word. 
It  is  that  they  will  not  lay  aside  all  malice,  and 
all  guile,  and  hypocrisies,  and  envies,  and  all  evil- 
speakings,  in  order  to  receive  the  word  and  to  be 
nourished  by  it  into  holiness.  They  will  not  re- 
ceive the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child  may 


CHRISTIAN  GROWTH.  233 

receive  it.  They  will  not  turn  and  become  as 
little  children.  A  little  child  in  its  simplicity 
may  receive  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  renewing 
efficacy  of  the  gospel  may  enter  into  the  mind 
with  the  earliest  rudiments  of  intellectual  and 
moral  instruction.  In  that  little  child,  bending 
at  its  mother's  knee  to  pray,  and  hearing  from 
its  mother's  lips  "  that  sweet  story  of  old,"  how 
Jesus  took  little  children  into  his  arms  and  blessed 
them,  a  new  and  spiritual  life  may  begin,  —  an 
infant  life  at  first,  but  growing  with  the  child's 
growth,  and  sttengthening  with  its  strength.  The 
mind,  the  heart,  the  entire  soul  of  that  child  may 
be  molded  in  all  the  process  of  growth,  from  in- 
fancy onward,  by  the  power  of  truth  quickening 
the  sense  of  duty  and  the  consciousness  of  rela- 
tions to  eternity,  and  by  the  power  of  God's  love 
made  manifest  in  Christ,  —  while  the  man  of  high 
and  various  intelligence,  speculating  profoundly 
and  inquiring  accurately,  reads  and  hears  the 
Word  of  life,  and  even  studies  it  attentively, 
without  once  tasting  that  the  Lord  is  gracious. 
The  spiritual  life  begins  even  in  a  little  child 
that  is  simply  and  humbly  obedient  to  the  truth ; 


234  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

but  it  can  have  no  beginning  in  the  maturest  and 
most  enliglitened  mind  that  will  not  resolutely 
deny  ungodliness,  turning  with  earnest  purpose 
to  obey  and  follow  Christ. 

In  the  same  way  you  see  how  it  is  that  in  many 
regenerate  souls  (as  in  a  charitable  judgment  we 
may  presume  them  to  be)  there  is  so  little  evi- 
dence of  spiritual  growth.  It  is  not  because  the 
word  can  not  nourish  them.  It  is  not  because  the 
promises  of  God  are  of  no  validity.  It  is  because 
they  are  not  diligent  to  overcome  and  suppress 
that  \vhich  remains  within  them  of  ungodly  habits 
and  affections.  They  have  no  adequate  sense  or 
resolution  of  what  is  necessary  on  their  part  in 
order  that  the  word  with  which  they  are  fed  may 
have  its  effect  in  causing  them  to  grow  into  more 
of  the  likeness  of  God,  and  more  of  the  beauty 
and  strength  of  spiritual  life.  In  other  words, 
they  disregard  the  great  principle  which  under- 
lies those -warnings,  "Quench  not  the  Spirit," 
"Grieve  not  the  Spirit,"  "that  Holy  Spirit  of 
promise."  Growth  in  grace,  while  it  is  in  one 
sense  spontaneous  and  even  unconscious,  is  in 
another  sense  the  effect  of  self-culture  and  self 


CHRISTIAN   GROWTH.  235 

discipline.  While  it  is  in  one  aspect  the  work  of 
the  informing  Word  and  quickening  Spirit  of  God, 
it  is  also,  in  another  aspect,  the  achievement  of 
the  soul  itself  struggling  in  God's  strength,  and 
under  his  guidance,  against  its  own  corruptions. 
Thus  have  I  shown  you  what  is  necessary  on 
your  part  to  your  spiritual  growth.  You  must  be 
willing  to  know  and  to  condemn  your  own  defi- 
ciencies. You  must  diligently  endeavor  to  under- 
stand your  errors,  and  to  escape  from  them.  As 
under  the  eye  of  God,  and  with  prayer  for  his 
illumination,  you  must  search  out  your,  secret 
faults,  confessing  them  to  him,  and  forsaking 
them.  You  must  "  purify  your  soul  in  obey- 
ing the  truth  through  the  Spirit."  So  shall  you 
"  grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  Your  soul  shall 
be  nourished  with  angels'  food,  the  Word  of  God, 
and  shall  grow  toward  "  the  measure  of  the  stat- 
ure of  the  fullness  of  Christ." 


CHAPTER  Xn. 


FRUITFULNESS 


"  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches  :  he  that  abideth  in 
me,  and  I  in  him,  the  same  bringeth  forth  much  fruit :  for 
without  me  ye  can  do  nothing."     John  xv.  5. 

"Herein  is  my  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear  much  fruit; 
so  shall  ye  be  my  disciples."     John  xv.  8. 

"  Giving  all  diligence,  add  to  your  faith,  virtue ;  and  to 
virtue,  knowledge ;  and  to  knowledge,  temperance ;  and  to  tem- 
perance, patience ;  and  to  patience,  godliness ;  and  to  godliness, 
brotherly  kindness  ;  and  to  brotherly  kindness,  charity.  For 
if  these  things  be  in  you,  and  abound,  they  make  you  that  ye 
shall  neither  be  barren  nor  unfruitful  in  the  knowledge  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ."    2  Pet.  i.  5,  8. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


FRUITFULNESS. 


Self-culture  resulting  in  fruitfulness.  You  must  not  con- 
found fruitfulness  with  usefulness,  nor  with  zeal  for  doing 
good.  Scriptural  idea  of  Christian  fruitfulness  illustrated  in 
Christ's  parable  of  the  sower,  —  in  his  allegory  of  the  vine,  — 
in  the  apostle  Peter's  synthesis  of  Christian  character.  Prac- 
tical errors  in  Christian  self-culture  that  may  come  from  a 
mistaken  conception  of  fruitfulness. 

No  man  should  think  of  being  Christ's  disciple, 
unless  it  be  his  aim  and  aspiration  to  become  one 
of  those  disciples  in  whom  the  word  of  Christ 
brings  forth  fruit  to  eternal  life.  Christian  fruit- 
fulness is  the  end  for  which  all  the  means  of  grace 
are  appointed,  and  for  which  grace  itself  is  given. 
It  is  the  end,  therefore,  of  all  Christian  self-dis- 
cipline. 

What  is  the  true  idea  of  Christian  fruitfulness  ? 
A  mistaken  conception  of  it  can  not  but  mislead 
your  endeavors  and  your  aspirations.     For  exam- 


240  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

pie,  if  you  assume  that  fruitfulness  in  the  knowledge 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  identical  with  visible 
or  traceable  usefulness  in  the  Church,  you  will  be 
likely  to  err,  not  only  in  your  judgment  of  your- 
self and  of  others,  but  also  in  your  thoughts  and 
hopes  of  Christian  progress.  Special  usefulness  is 
in  a  great  measure  dependent  on  special  gifts  and 
special  opportunities.  Nay,  as  the  apostle  Paul 
suggests,  a  man  may  be  greatly  useful,  though  in 
his  own  soul  the  gospel  brings  forth  no  fruit  to 
perfection ;  he  may  preach  to  others  with  as  wide 
a  success  as  that  which  attended  the  apostle  to 
the  Gentiles,  and  yet  be  himself  a  castaway.  In 
like  manner,  if  you  identify  the  idea  of  fruitful- 
ness with  the  one  idea  of  zeal  in  some  particular 
department  of  religious  or  philanthropic  activity, 
or  even  with  the  one  idea  of  zeal  for  doing  good 
in  general,  as  if  that  were  the  sum  total  of  the 
Christian  life,  your  judgment  of  yourself  and  of 
others  will  be  narrow  and  often  erroneous,  and 
your  aspirations  after  higher  attainments  in  per- 
sonal holiness  will  be  often  misdirected. 

Observe,  then,  carefully,  what  idea  of  Chris- 
tian fruitfulness  is  given  in  the  Scriptures.     Begin 


FRUITFULNESS.  241 

with  the  parable  of  the  sower,  in  which  the  great 
Teacher  seems  to  have  used  this  figure  for  the  first 
time.  His  instances  and  illustrations  of  unfruit- 
fulness  are  significant.  First,  "  When  any  one 
heareth  the  word  of  the  kingdom,  and  under- 
standeth  it  not,"  —  that  is,  does  not  receive  it 
into  his  mind,  — "  then  cometh  the  wicked  one, 
and  catcheth  away  that  which  was  sown  in  his 
heart.  This  is  he  which  received  seed  by  the  way- 
side." The  word  of  the  kingdom  has  no  effect 
upon  him.  Next,  "  He  that  received  the  seed  into 
stony  places,  the  same  is  he  that  heareth  the  word, 
and  anon  with  joy  receiveth  it ;  yet  hath  he  not 
root  in  himself,  but  dureth  for  a  while."  The 
word  in  his  case  is  what  the  seed  was  that  fell 
upon  stony  places,  springing  up  suddenly,  but 
withering  in  the  first  heat,  and  so  producing  noth- 
ing. Another  instance  of  unfruitfulness  is,  "he 
that  heareth  the  word,  and  the  care  of  this  world, 
and  the  deceitfulness  of  riches  choke  the  word, 
and  he  becometh  unfruitful."  The  opposite  of  all 
this  is  fruitfulness,  —  the  fruitfulness  of  him  who 
"  heareth  the  word  and  understandeth  it,"  or  takes 
it  into  his  mind  and  digests  it  into  thought  and 
16 


242  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

life,  —  the  fruitfulness  of  them  who  "  in  an  hon- 
est and  good  heart,  having  heard  the  word,  keep 
it,  and  bring  forth  fruit  with  patience."  Fruitful- 
ness, according  to  the  illustrations  given  in  the 
parable  of  the  sower,  is  nothing  less  than  the  en- 
tire effect  of  the  gospel  on  the  believing  and  obe- 
dient soul. 

On  another  occasion,  Christ  employed  a  differ- 
ent analogy  to  set  forth  the  idea  of  fruitfulness  in 
his  disciples.  It  was  when  he  spoke  of  himself 
as  the  true  vine,  of  which  his  Father  is  the  hus- 
bandman, and  in  which  his  disciples  are  the 
branches.  "  As  the  branch,"  said  he,  "  can  not 
bear  fruit  of  itself,  except  it  abide  in  the  vine  : 
no  more  can  ye,  except  ye  abide  in  me.  I  am 
the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches  :  he  that  abideth 
in  me,  and  I  in  him,  the  same  bringeth  forth 
much  fruit :  for  without  me  ye  can  do  nothing." 
"  Herein  is  my  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear 
much  fruit :  so  shall  ye  be  my  disciples,"  — 
that  is,  the  fact  that  you  are  indeed  my  dis 
ciples  shall  be  evidenced  by  your  fruitfulness. 
In  this  illustration,  fruitfulness  is  nothing  less 
than    the  entire  effect   wrought   in   the  soul   and 


FRUITFULNESS.  243 

life  of  the  believer  by  that  vital  relation  to  Christ 
which  is  represented  in  the  words,  "  Abide  in 
me,  and  I  in  you." 

Christian  fruitfulness  *is  mentioned  in  yet  an- 
other connection.  Turn  once  more  to  that  re- 
markable passage  which  I  have  already  so  often 
commended  to  your  attention,  and  in  which  the 
exceeding  great  and  precious  promises  are  referred 
to  as  an  encouragement  to  diligence  in  a  spiritual 
self-discipline.  "  For  this  very  reason,"  —  be- 
cause such  promises  are  given  to  us, —  "add  to 
your  faith,  virtue  ;  and  to  virtue,  knowledge ;  and 
to  knowledge,  temperance ;  and  to  temperance,  pa- 
tience ;  and  to  patience,  godliness ;  and  to  godliness, 
brotherly  kindness  ;  and  to  brotherly  kindness,  char- 
ity. For  if  these  things  be  in  you,  and  abound, 
they  make  you  that  ye  shall  neither  be  barren  nor 
unfruitful  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  The  meaning  is  not  that  these  things  are 
to  be  the  cause  of  fruitfulness,  but  that  they  are 
fruitfulness  itself.  It  is  in  these  things  that  fruit- 
fulness consists.  They  shall  constitute  you  "  nei- 
ther barren  nor  unfruitful  in  the  knowledge  of  our 
Lord." 


244  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

Your  mind  already  adverts  to  passages  in  which 
"  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit "  is  described.  "  The 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suflPer- 
ing,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temper- 
ance." "  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  in  all  good- 
ness, and  righteousness,  and  truth."  Fruitfulness, 
as  thus  described,  is  the  aim  and  appropriate  result 
of  those  Divine  influences  by  which  the  soul  is 
renewed  in  the  likeness  of  God. 

It  is  evident,  then,  what  Christ  means  when  he 
says  to  his  disciples,  "  Herein  is  my  Father  glori- 
fied, that  ye  bear  much  fruit."  Christian  fruit- 
fulness  may  be  regarded  as  the  effect  of  Divine 
truth  received  into  a  believing  mind  and  incorpo- 
rated into  the  soul's  life.  It  may  be  regarded  as 
resulting  from  that  spiritual  union  between  Christ 
and  his  disciples,  which  he  represents  when  he 
calls  himself  the  vine  and  them  the  branches.  It 
may  be  regarded  as  the  true  proficiency  of  a  dis- 
ciple in  the  knowledge  of  his  Lord  and  Saviour. 
It  may  be  regarded  as  the  fruit  of  that  Holy  Spirit 
of  promise  by  which  believers  are  sealed,  and 
which  is  the  earnest  of  their  inheritance.  But 
under   all  these  aspects  it  is  one  and  the  same 


FRUITFULNESS.  245 

thing,  —  nothing  else  than  the  maturity,  the 
beauty,  the  worth,  and  the  blessedness  of  a  com- 
plete Christian  character. 

I  have  already  warned  you  that  a  mistaken  con- 
ception of  what  is  meant  by  fruitfulness  may  have 
the  effect  of  misdirecting  your  aspirations  and  en- 
deavors in  the  Christian  life.  Be  careful,  then,  to 
set  before  yourself  a  full  and  clear  idea  of  what  it 
is  which  constitutes  productiveness  and  fruitfulness 
in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  is 
a  too  common  error  to  suppose  that  the  fruitful- 
ness of  a  Christian  is  to  be  found,  not  simply  in 
his  own  interior  life,  but  rather  in  results  external 
to  himself,  —  not  simply  in  what  he  becomes  under 
God's  renewing  and  sanctifying  work,  but  rather 
in  what  he  brings  to  pass,  and  in  the  conviction 
which  he  produces  on  other  minds,  —  not  so  much 
in  the  reality  of  a  life  which  is  hid  with  Christ  in 
God,  as  in  the  outward  manifestation  and  visibility 
of  such  a  life,  in  the  impression  which  it  makes  on 
beholders,  and  in  the  efficacy  of  its  influence  on 
the  church  or  on  the  world.  If  you  take  up  such 
a  notion  of  what  you  are  to  aim  at  in  undertaking 
and  professing  to  follow  Christ,  you  will  be  in 


246  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

danger  of  striving  to  seem  holy  instead  of  striving 
to  be  holy.  You  will  be  in  danger  of  substituting 
the  formalisms  and  conventionalisms  that  happen 
to  be  in  vogue  among  the  religious  people  of  your 
acquaintance,  for  the  simple  reality  of  trusting  in 
Christ  and  walking  humbly  with  God.  You  will 
be  in  danger  of  falling  into  habits  of  religious  affec- 
tation in  manners  and  speech  and  in  demonstra- 
tions of  sanctimony  or  of  zeal,  instead  of  simply 
striving  to  receive  and  obey  the  word  of  Christ, 
to  grasp  the  hope  he  sets  before  you,  and  to  become 
like  him  in  the  temper  and  spirit  of  your  mind. 
Instead  of  asking,  in  the  simplicity  of  a  believing 
and  obedient  spirit,  what  the  God  in  whom  you 
trust  would  have  you  do,  and  doing  all  things 
heartily  as  to  the  Lord  and  not  to  men,  you  will 
be  continually  and  irresistibly  tempted  to  ask. 
What  will  men  say  or  think  about  me  ?  —  how 
shall  I  make  the  right  impression  upon  them  ?  — 
how  shall  I  make  them  feel  that  my  religion  is  a 
reality  ?  All  this  tends  to  fix  your  mind  more 
upon  how  you  appear  than  upon  what  you  are, 
and  to  make  you  more  sohcitous  about  the  impres- 
sions and  opinions  of  men  than  about  what  your 


FRUITFULNESS.  247 

own  heart  is  in  the  sight  of  God.  Thus  it  is  that 
many  a  man  falls  by  degrees  into  an  unintended 
and  unconscious  hypocrisy,  —  acquires  a  habit  of 
using  religious  words  and  phrases  by  rote  and  with 
little  recollection  or  sense  of  what  they  mean,  — 
gradually  assumes  in  his  countenance  and  manner 
an  expression  which,  being  designed  for  impres- 
sion, is  unnatural  and  perhaps  repulsive.  I  do  not 
warn  you  against  seriousness  and  gravity  of  speech 
or  of  deportment,  but  this  I  say,  watch  and 
pray  that  you  enter  nofinto  temptation,  —  watch 
and  pray  that  you  may  he  always  under  the  full 
power  of  things  unseen  and  eternal,  rather  than 
that  you  may  seem  so. 

By  the  same  sort  of  misconception  you  may  be 
led  to  undervalue  many  of  the  most  important  ele- 
ments of  Christian  character.  It  is  easy  for  you 
to  take  up  the  notion  that  if  only  you  can  be  what 
is  called  an  active  Christian,  you  will  be  of  course 
a  complete  and  eminent  Christian.  Sometimes  we 
see  a  man  who  is  conspicuous  in  efforts  of  one  sort 
or  another  for  the  advancement  of  religion,  zealous 
for  the  church,  or  for  this  or  that  religious  enter- 
prise, but  who,  in  exercising  himself  unto  godli- 


248  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

ness,  is  far  from  giving  due  attention  to  the  things 
that  are  true  and  honest  and  just  and  lovely  and 
of  good  report.  It  is  easy  for  you  to  fall  into  just 
that  error,  and  to  assume  that  what  Christ  looks 
for  in  you  is  nothing  else  than  zeal  for  the  church, 
or  zeal  for  the  interest  of  religion.  Do  not  think 
that  I  disparage  religious  activity  as  an  element  of 
Christian  character,  nor  that  I  would  in  any  way 
discourage  or  check  your  zeal  to  do  all  you  can  for 
Christ,  and  for  the  souls  of  men.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  would  have  you  understand  distinctly,  and 
remember,  that  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  all  his  disci- 
ples is  essentially  a  beneficent  and  active  spirit,  a 
spirit  of  zeal  for  God,  and  of  aggression  against  the 
darkness  and  wickedness  of  this  world.  I  would 
have  you  understand  that  where  there  is  no  sym- 
pathy with  Christ  in  his  redeeming  work,  no  com- 
passion for  those  who  are  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins,  no  love  for  the  church  and  kingdom  of  Christ, 
no  readiness  for  self-denial  in  the  service  of  Christ, 
the  spirit  of  Christ  is  not  manifest.  There  may 
be  an  unblamed  and  unsuspected  uprightness  in  all 
human  relations,  and  with  it  there  may  be  com- 
bined a  most  attractive  personal  amiableness  like 


FRUITFULNESS.  249 

that  of  the  young  man  whom  Jesus  loved ;  and  yet, 
if  there  is  no  sympathy  with  Christ  and  no  readi- 
ness for  self-sacrifice  in  his  service,  the  one  thing 
lacking,  as  in  the  case  of  that  young  man,  implies 
a  fatal  deficiency.  But  I  would  have  you  under- 
stand also,  and  remember,  that  no  manifestation 
of  zeal  for  the  Lord,  no  bustle  or  eelat  of  religious 
activity,  no  restlessness  of  endeavor  in  enterprises 
of  philanthropy  or  of  moral  or  religious  propa- 
gandism,  no  readiness  to  give,  to  suffer,  or  to  die 
in  behalf  of  a  principle,  can  turn  the  balance 
against  the  want  of  personal  integrity,  of  strict 
veracity  and  honesty,  of  thorough  purity,  of  con- 
scientiousness in  all  those  ordinary  and  homely 
virtues  without  which  the  profession  of  saintliness 
is  an  abhorrence  to  God.  A  man  may  not  only 
have  the  gift  of  prophecy  and  understand  all  mys- 
teries and  all  knowledge  without  the  principle  of 
holy  love,  —  he  may  not  only  preach  to  others  and 
be  himself  a  castaway,  —  he  may  even  bestow  all 
his  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  give  his  body  to  be 
burned,  in  the  fervor  of  a  zeal  which  is  not  holy 
love  and  has  no  fellowship  with  Christ.  If  there 
be  any  virtue,  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on 


250  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTURE. 

whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are 
honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever 
things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely, 
whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report.  Remember 
that  "  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace, 
long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meek- 
ness, temperance."  Remember  that  charity  needs 
no  conspicuousness  of  position,  no  celebrity  or 
notoriety,  no  trophies  of  success,  as  essential  to  its 
reality.  It  suffereth  long  and  is  kind ;  it  envieth 
not ;  it  vaunteth  not  itself,  —  is  not  puffed  up,  — 
doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly,  —  seeketh  not  its 
own,  —  is  not  easily  provoked,  —  thinketh  no  evil, 

—  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  in  the 
truth,  —  beareth  all  things,  —  believeth  all  things, 

—  hopeth  all  things,  — >  endureth  all  things  ;  and 
in  order  to  this  it  needs  no  splendor  of  gifts,  no 
rare  felicity  of  opportunities,  no  great  cloud  of 
mortal  witnesses,  no  plaudits  of  this  world's  admi- 
ration. It  may  be  as  complete,  as  beautiful  to  the 
eye  of  God,  and  as  true  a  manifestation  of  his 
glory,  in  the  humblest  position  as  anywhere  else. 

Some  really  conscientious  persons,  whose  desire 
and  purpose  to  follow  Christ  need  not  be  doubted, 


FRUITFULNESS.  251 

seem  to  misunderstand,  in  part,  the  application  of 
that  precept,  "  Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men, 
that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  and  glorify 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  Forgetful  that  it 
is  the  nature  of  light  to  shine,  they  do  not  observe 
that  what  the  precept  requires  of  them  is  simply 
that  interior  life  of  purity  and  love,  that  inward 
holiness,  which  can  not  but  shine.  If  it  be  said  to 
the  watchman  on  the  mountain-top,  "  Let  your 
light  shine,"  he  has  only  to  kindle  his  beacon,  and 
its  warning  flame  flashes  across  the  valleys.  If  it 
be  said  to  the  keeper  of  a  light -house,  "  Let  your 
light  sliine,"  he  has  only  to  light  up  the  lamp  in 
his  turret,  and  far  over  the  waves  it  shines.  So 
when  Christ  says  to  us,  "  Let  your  light  shine 
before  men,  —  let  it  so  shine,  that  they  may  see 
your  good  works,  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is 
in  heaven,"  we  need  not  concern  ourselves  about 
the  impression  which  our  conduct  may  make  on 
other  minds ;  we  need  only  take  care  that  in 
thought,  as  well  as  in  word  and  deed,  our  lives  are 
humble,  holy,  Christ-like ;  and  our  light  will  shine, 
the  self-same  light  that  shone  in  Christ.  If  we 
begin  to  be  anxious  about  the  impression  we  are 
making  upon  men,  we  are  immediately  in  danger 


252  CHRISTIAN   SELF-CULTURE. 

of  becoming  like  the  hypocrites,  whose  ruling 
motive  in  their  works  of  outward  goodness,  or  of 
outward  godliness,  is  that  they  may  be  seen  of 
men.  The  habit  of  doins;  thino;s  for  effect  or  im- 
pression  is  dangerous.  It  is  affectation ;  and  affec- 
tation is,  in  its  degree,  hypocrisy. 

"  Let  this  mind  be  in  you,  which  was  also  in 
Christ."  It  seems  almost  irreverent  even  to  in- 
quire what  the  effect  would  be  on  our  estimate  of 
Christ's  human  character,  if  we  could  imagine  him 
as  doing  any  thing  for  the  sake  of  appearances. 
Who  does  not  feel  that  the  glory  that  shines  in  the 
human  life  of  our  Redeemer  would  not  be  there, 
but  for  his  perfect  unaffectedness  ?  The  glory  of 
Christ  in  his  followers  is  dimmed,  if  it  does  not 
shine  naturally,  and,  as  it  were,  unconsciously, 
"  in  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity."  So  let  your 
light  shine. 

Remember,  then,  that  the  aim  of  all  your  self- 
culture  as  a  disciple  of  Christ  must  be  not  the 
show  and  seeming  of  a  Christian  life,  but  the 
reality.  A  completely  Christ-like  character  is  to 
be  valued  for  its  own  sake,  and  not  for  the  sake  of 
what  men  may  think  of  it.  God  values  it  for 
what  it  is,  and  not  for  the  impression  which  it 


FRUITFULNESS.  253 

makes.      A  truly  and  completely  Christian  cha- 
racter is  nothing;  else  than  a  Christ-like  soul. 

A  Christ-like  soul !  Think,  you  whose  eye  is 
on  this  page,  how  blessed  it  is  to  be  like  Christ, 
not  in  profession  only,  but  in  reality ;  not  only  in 
the  show  and  seeming  of  a  Christian  character, 
but  in  the  soul's  life.  Think  how  possible  it  is  for 
you  to  be  thus  blessed.  Think  of  God's  love  to 
you,  testified  in  Christ's  self-sacrifice  for  you. 
Think  of  God's  willingness  to  give  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him.  Think  of  those 
exceeding  great  and  precious  promises  which-  are 
given  to  you  in  the  gospel,  that  by  them  you  may 
be  a  partaker  of  the  Divine  nature.  It  is  possible 
for  you  to  become  —  by  God's  mercy  and  gracious 
help,  by  his  blessing  on  your  diligence,  by  his 
answer  to  your  prayers,  by  his  performance  of  his 
promises  —  a  Christ-like  soul. 

Is  this  your  aspiration  ?  Are  you  hoping,  pray- 
ing, and  striving  to  realize  in  your  own  experience 
the  blessedness  of  a  Christ-like  soul  ?  There  is  no 
really  Christian  self-culture  which  aspires  to  any 
thing  less  than  this.  Assuming  that  such  is  your 
aspiration,  I  have  endeavored  to  help  you  by 
these  friendly  counsels,  and  to  encourage  you  by 


254  CHRISTIAN  SELF-CULTUEE. 

showing  that  this  is  the  hope  which  the  gospel  sets 
before  you.  All  that  I  have  written  is  worthless 
to  you,  if  you  are  not  striving  to  "  put  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and  to  be  transformed  into  his 
likeness  "by  the  renewing  of  your  mind." 

Be  assured  that  there  is  nothing  extravagant  or 
unwarranted  in  your  aspiring  to  all  the  dignity 
and  blessedness  of  a  Christ-like  soul.  In  truth 
there  is  no  other  just  conception  of  a  Christian 
life  than  this,  that  it  is  the  life  of  a  renewed  soul 
growing  more  and  more  like  Christ.  To  "  put  on 
the  new  man  "  is  nothing  else  than  to  "  put  on 
Christ ;  "  and  the  new  life  is  in  us  only  as  that 
mind  is  in  us  which  was  also  in  Christ.  Ask 
what  the  blessedness  is  to  which  they  that  love 
God  are  "  called  according  to  his  purpose."  Let 
an  apostle  answer.  *'  Whom  he  did  foreknow,  he 
also  did  predestinate  ;  "  —  to  what  ?  —  "to  be 
conformed  to  the  image  of  his  Son  that  he  might 
be  the  first-born  among  many  brethren."  [Rom. 
viii.  28,  29.]  It  is  to  this  that  you  are  invited. 
"  That  ye  might  be  partakers  of  the  divine  na- 
ture," is  the  end  for  which  are  given  all  the  offers 
and  promises  which  constitute  the  gospel. 

If  you  have  heartily  undertaken  the  self-culture 


FRUITFULNESS.  255 

to  which  the  gospel  calls  us,  you  are  already  be- 
coming a  Christ-like  soul.  If  you  have  received 
Christ,  you  are  one  of  those  whom  he  has  made 
the  sons  of  God,  —  himself  the  first-born  among 
many  brethren.  "  Behold  what  manner  of  love 
the  Father  hath  bestowed  on  us  that  we  should  be 
called  the  sons  of  God !  "  "  It  doth  not  yet 
appear  what  we  shall  be  ;  but  we  know  that  when 
he  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  him,  for  we  shall 
see  him  as  he  is."  A  Christ-hke  soul  is  a  Godlike 
soul ;  and  that  likeness  to  God  perfected  in  the 
soul,  is  the  consummation  of  blessedness.  Your 
assurance  of  hope  is  :  "I  shall  be  satisfied  when 
I  awake  with  thy  likeness."  Meanwhile,  all  the 
progress  of  your  Christian  self-culture  is  a  prog- 
ress m  likeness  to  Christ,  "  whom  not  having  seen 
you  love,  in  whom,  though  now  you  see  him  not, 
yet  believing,  you  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable 
and  full  of  glory,  receiving  the  end  of  your 

FAITH,  THE    SALVATION    OF    YOUR    SOUL." 


THE   END. 


Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


